) 



) 



LIFE 



OF 

THOMAS CHALMERS, D. D. LL.D. 

a 

WRITTEN FOR THE MASS. SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, AND 
APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 



BOSTON: 

MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY. 
Depository, No. 13 Cornhill. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

Tee Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massa- 
chusetts. 



CAMBRIDGE : 
ALLEN AND FARNHAM, PRINTERS. 



PREFACE. 



Religious Memoirs do not hold an important 
place, either in the interest or affection of the 
greater part of the young readers who attend our 
Sabbath Schools. 

It was the knowledge of this fact, more than 
any other, which induced the writer of this 
biography to endeavor to prepare a book which 
should combine that which was attractive with 
the effective moral lesson always to be learned 
from a careful study of the lives of the great and 
the good. 

The history of Dr. Chalmers' life, seems, in an 
eminent degree, to illustrate the power and influ- 
ence which may be attained, and the honor and 
affection which may be secured by a person 
whose talents are sanctified, and whose efforts are 
guided and directed by an active, earnest piety. 
It is replete with a simple, practical lesson, 



4 



PREFACE. 



which, tinder God's blessing, may exert a lasting 
influence upon all who are ready and willing to 
profit by it. 

In the pleasant task of preparation, free use 
has been made of Dr. Hanna's extensive Memoir. 
We feel ourselves under great obligation to him 
for the opportunity which he has afforded us of 
selecting from full and interesting material, the 
leading incidents in Dr. Chalmers' life, also for 
access to so many of Dr. Chalmers' own records 
of passing events. 

No claim is made by the writer to any other 
credit than that due to a faithful compiler, who, 
keeping steadily in view the object of the book, 
has endeavored to accomplish this by the use of 
the best materials which could be obtained. 

Hoping that this object has been in some man- 
ner reached, the book is dedicated to those for 
whom it was written, — ■ 

The young people of our Sabbath 
Schools. 

Middlebury, Dec. 25, 1857. 



LIFE 

OF 

THOMAS CHALMERS, D. D. LL. D. 



CHAPTER I. 

Along the south sea-coast of Scotland, 
in the county of Fife, lies the small town 
of Anstruther. It is not remarkable for 
any beauty of scenery. Close on the shore, 
flat and sterile, it has nothing to admire 
but the ever changing beauty of its ocean 
view. The low, solemn dirge of those 
waters, beating and breaking so ceaselessly 
upon the shore, the sublimity and grandeur 
of the winter storm and the soft, glad loveli- 
ness of the summer sea, must deeply have 
impressed the character of those, who were 
always within their influences. A bold, 

1 (6) 



6 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



adventurous, enterprising race would prob- 
ably spring up along this sea-girt coast. 
We are not therefore surprised to learn, 
that here in Anstruther, and in two other 
small adjoining towns, being also upon the 
coast, were born three of the greatest of 
Scotsmen, — Dr. Adam Smith, Sir John 
Leslie, and Thomas Chalmers, the subject 
of this Memoir. 

The Chalmers family had long been 
residents of Anstruther. Perhaps not so 
long ago as two hundred years, when it 
was a flourishing seaport, and sent its ships 
all over the known world, in busy com- 
merce; when Holland and France and 
Spain sent their rich goods in exchange for 
its mere homely manufactures of malt and 
salt and dye-stuff; but doubtless they were 
there in 1588, when the persecutions and 
suffering of the French Refugee Protes- 
tants, called forth from the then flourishing 
town the large subscription of 500 marks, 
one twentieth part of all that was given in 
Scotland. 

Upon the union of the crowns of Scot* 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



7 



land and England, the commercial pros- 
perity of all these smaller Scotch towns 
began to decline. English ports now sent 
out the same manufactures, and English 
revenue cutters watched for and captured 
those richly freighted smuggling vessels, 
which had been such an unlawful, but 
great source of wealth. 

Among the most prominent merchants 
were many bearing the Chalmers name. 
It was not until 1701 that we read of a 
minister as belonging to the family. He 
was the son of an old laird, and noted 
neither for energy or mental endowments, 
but for a very good, thriving wife. This 
excellent wife educated twelve children. 
The eldest son must follow in his father's 
steps, and adopt the clerical profession. 
The second must adhere to the business of 
his more remote ancestors ; must become 
dyer, ship-owner, and general merchant ; 
and he in his turn must transmit this 
business, with a good share of the energy 
and activity of his mother, to his own son. 
This same son, "being very prosperous," 



6 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



says the annals, was, in 1771, married to 
the daughter of a wine merchant at Crail, 
Elizabeth Hall. Their family consisted of 
nine sons and five daughters. It is the 
sixth child and fourth son, the history of 
whose life we propose to lay before our 
young reader. He was born March 17, 
1780, and was immediately named Thomas, 
for his uncle. In a letter announcing his 
birth to a brother in London, his father 
writes of him as " a fine boy," and ex- 
presses the wish that he may be as good a 
man as his name-father — also that he 
may live to be " God's servant." When 
this boy was two years old, there was 
another claimant upon his mother's time 
and care, in the person of his baby sister 
Isabel ; and Thomas's very earliest im- 
pressions seem to be of the character of the 
nurse to whom he was intrusted and the 
treatment he received from her. Cruel and 
tyrannical, she succeeded in making his 
childhood hours replete with memories of 
injury and unhappiness. Never, to his latest 
days, could he refer to her treatment of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 9 



him without a burst of indignation, as fresh 
as if the events were those of yesterday. 

"When his roused spirit could bear no 
more, and he was about to run and reveal 
his wrongs, she stopped him, and petted 
him, and poured over him a perfect flood 
of affected tenderness, extorting from him a 
promise that he would not tell, and then 
behind that promise treating him worse 
than ever." 

There are early traits of character illus- 
trated by these incidents, which are worthy 
of notice. The affectionate heart of the 
child, over whom loving words had the 
power of quieting a storm of " righteous 
indignation," and a high sense of honor 
which kept his lips sealed, and prevented 
his revealing, even to his mother, how much 
he daily suffered. 

It assisted also early to develop energy 
of character, for miserable at home, he 
sought relief in attending with his brothers 
and sisters a neighboring school. He did 
not show any special fondness for his 
books, or love for the quiet and order of 



10 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the school-room. He was a strong, active 
boy, and, could he have escaped tyranny at 
home, there is no reason to suppose he 
would voluntarily have chosen confine- 
ment and application. 

His parents were too much occupied by 
the many cares attendant on providing for 
their large family to notice the mental 
suffering: of one child. As the unkindness 
of the nurse passed undetected, so now the 
exactions and severity of the poor, old, blind, 
cross schoolmaster were allowed to sadden 
those school days, always long and dreary 
enough to the little one, whose proper place 
is with the playthings in the nursery at 
home much more than in the overheated, 
close school-room. 

Thomas was most unfortunate ; he had 
gone from domestic tyranny to a kind 
hardly less easy to be borne at school. 

We read of this schoolmaster, "that his 
thirst for flogging grew with the decline, 
and survived the loss, of vision. Eager in 
the pursuit, the sightless tyrant used to 
creep stealthily along behind a row of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



11 



his little victims, listening for each indica- 
tion by word or motion, of punishable offence, 
and ready, soon as ever the centre of trouble 
was settled, to inflict the avenging blow. 
But the quicksighted urchins were too 
cunning for him, and soon fell upon a plan 
to defraud him of his prey. In the row 
opposite to that behind which he took his 
furtive walk, one of the boys was set to 
watch, and whenever by sudden slip or 
uplifted arm, any token of the intention to 
strike appeared, a preconcerted signal given 
quickly to the intended victim enabled him 
to slip at once but noiselessly out of his 
place, so that, to Mr. Bryce's (the school- 
master) enraged discomfiture, and to the 
no small amusement of the school, his best 
aimed blows fell not unfrequently upon the 
hard, unflinching desk." 

Fortunately for Thomas, the master's in- 
firmities increased so rapidly that he was 
at last obliged to call in an assistant ; and, 
as if to make the contrast all the stronger, 
nature had made this man, Mr. Ramsay, 
as good-natured and inefficient as the head 



12 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



of the school was cross and driving. All 
the smaller boys, and, of course, Thomas, 
were put under his immediate care ; now 
the boy received kind words and gentle 
usage, and, true to his earnest, affectionate 
nature, he loved and clung to his teacher, 
even when after events in life had caused 
almost every one else to forget him. To- 
ward the close of his life, Mr. Ramsay, in 
speaking of this " wee bit of a boy," says : 
" No man knows the amount of kindness 
which I have received from my old pupil. 
He has often done me good both as respects 
my soul and my body. Many a pithy 
sentence he uttered when he threw him- 
self in my way. Many a pound note has 
the doctor given me, and he always did the 
thing as if he were afraid that any person 
should see him. May God reward him." 

We find so interesting an account of his 
early school-days in Dr. Hanna's memoirs, 
that we extract it entire, sure that we 
could not do the reader a greater favor. 

" By those of his school-fellows, few now 
in number who survive, Dr. Chalmers is 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 13 



remembered as one of the idlest, strongest, 
merriest, and most generous-hearted boys 
in Anstruther school. Little time or atten- 
tion would have been required from him to 
prepare his daily lessons so as to meet the 
ordinary demands of the school-room, — for 
when he did set himself to learn, not one of 
all his school-fellows could do it at once so 
quickly and so well. When the time came, 
however, for saying them, the lessons were 
often found scarcely half learned, sometimes 
not learned at all. The punishment in- 
flicted in such cases was to send the culprit 
to a coal-hole, to remain there in solitude 
until the neglected duty was discharged. 
If many of the boys could boast over 
Thomas Chalmers that they were seldomer 
in the place of punishment, none could say 
that they got more quickly out of it. Joy- 
ous, vigorous, and humorous, he took a part 
in all the games of the play-ground, ever 
ready to lead or to follow when school-boy 
expeditions were planned and executed ; 
and wherever for fun or frolic any little 
group of the merry-hearted were gathered, 



14 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



his full, rich laugh might be heard rising 
amid their shouts of glee. But he was 
altogether unmischievous in his mirth. He 
could not bear that either falsehood or blas- 
phemy should mingle in it. 

" His own greater strength he always used 
to defend the weak or the injured, who 
looked to him as their natural protector ; 
and whenever in its heated overflow, play 
passed into passion, he hastened from the 
ungenial region, rushing once into a neigh- 
boring house when a whole storm of muscle 
shells was flying to and fro which the angry 
little hands that flung them meant to do all 
the mischief they could, and exclaiming, as 
he sheltered himself in his retreat, 4 I'm no 
for powder and ball,' a saying which the 
good old woman beside whose ingle he 
found refuge, was wont in these later years 
to quote in his favor, when less friendly 
neighbors were charging him with being a 
man of strife, too fond of war." 

And so we can see the boy Chalmers, 
with his happy, hearty good-nature, — too 
fond of play to be very fond of study, but 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 15 



holding^fast to the generous, truthful, earnest 
traits which have heretofore marked his 
short life. It may naturally be supposed 
that it was rather the dislike of tasks than 
of books which made him an indolent 
scholar, for while his lessons were too often 
unlearned, he was reading with deep inter- 
est other books. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Pro- 
gress possessed a charm for him above all 
others. More than fifty years after he 
puzzled it out, word by word, he writes 
thus of it : " I feel quite sure that the use 
of the sacred dialogues as a school-book, 
and the pictures of Scripture scenes which 
interested my boyhood, still cleave to me, 
and impart a peculiar tinge and charm to 
the same representations when brought 
within my notice." His already creative 
imagination was busy making reality of 
these allegories, and we doubt not he 
travelled with poor Pilgrim, sorrow-laden 
from the city of destruction, — wept with 
him at parting from his wife and little ones, 
— and, but that we know he was a brave 
boy, trembled too, when the great lions 



16 



LIFK OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



stood with open mouth so ready to devour. 
This vivid power of sympathy he exhibited 
when scarcely more than three years old ; 
for one night, when the gathering shadows 
of evening made all the other little ones 
seek the shelter of their mother's presence, 
Thomas was missed, and, after some search, 
was found in a room by himself, walking 
up and down with quick, excited steps, and 
repeating that sad, sweet moan of the 
stricken king, " Oh, my son Absalom ! Oh, 
Absalom, my son, my son ! " 

All the touching narratives of the Bible 
seem to have made an early and deep im- 
pression upon him, but not so much on 
account of their religious character, as of 
their own true pathos and simplicity. No 
special tenderness of conscience, no early 
development of love or reverence of holy 
things is found recorded of him. At an 
early age he expressed a fondness for the 
profession of the ministry, and a fixed de- 
termination to preach ; but it is not prob- 
able that it was any thing more than is 
found so often in other active, lively chil- 



LIFE OP THOMAS CHALMERS, 



17 



dren. They associate the Sabbath with 
something set apart, holy; different, in 
some mysterious way, from all the other 
days of the busy week ; and on that, the 
minister is to them the one great object of 
attraction and deference. It is no wonder 
that, as they begin to look forward to a 
future, they choose for themselves what 
seems so conspicuously pleasant. It is re- 
lated of this child, that he was once found 
mounted upon a chair preaching most ener- 
getically to a single companion, a little child, 
whom he had induced to personate a whole 
attentive audience. He used frequently, in 
conversation with his young friends, to 
name the subject which he had chosen for 
his first sermon : and the text was natu- 
rally suggested by the listener, — " Let broth- 
erly love continue.'* That these little 
things should have been remembered and 
preserved with so much care for us now, is 
proof in itself that the boy gave early prom- 
ise of a rich manhood. 

His fathers family rapidly increased to 
fourteen children ; five daughters, and nine 
2 . 



18 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



sons, of whom only one died in childhood ; 
and among all the sayings and doings of 
such a company, those of one common 
child must have been unnoticed or forgotten. 
Had there not been so many, we should 
probably now have been able to trace much 
more of the man in the child ; but with 
these few we must go on to the twelfth 
year of his life, when, a stout, strong boy, 
athletic and happy, he left the paternal 
roof, and, with his elder brother William, 
became a student in the United College of 
St. Andrews. His book education had ad- 
vanced but little, but he had received that 
which was in truth of more importance, a 
finely developed physical frame, and that 
happy, trustful, buoyant spirit, the invari- 
able though invisible result of being brought 
up in a large, well-regulated, cheerful, re- 
ligious home. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 19 



CHAPTER II. 

It was during the bleak month of No- 
vember that he made his first flitting. 
We should love to follow the homesick 
child, as he exchanged the noise and life of 
his rnerry little folk at home for the seclu- 
sion, quiet, and order of a collegiate insti- 
tution. We have no doubt, if he was alone 
with William, that his pillow would have 
been found wetted with tears, and that 
images of his father and mother, perhaps 
even the old cross nurse, came between 
him and the unloved books. For some time 
he had not even the consolation of taking 
a respectable stand among his fellow-stu- 
dents. He was very deficient in his prep- 
aration, and must now reap, as every boy 
must, sooner or later, the consequences of 
neglect and inattention. After the first 
session he wrote a letter home, which, being 
still preserved, shows any thing but the 
knowledge of grammar and orthography 



20 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



which a boy of his age would naturally 
have been expected to possess. 

A friend of his, who was with him at the 
University of St. Andrews, writes of him 
while there as follows: — 

" He was at that time very young and 
volatile and boyish and idle in his habits, 
and, like the rest of us in those days, but 
ill prepared by previous education for reap- 
ing the full benefit of a college course. 
I think that during the first two sessions, 
a great part of his time must have been 
occupied (as mine was) in boyish amuse- 
ments, such as golf, foot-ball, and particu- 
larly hand-ball, in which latter he was 
remarkably expert, being left-handed. I re- 
member that he made no distinguished pro- 
gress in his education during two sessions." 

Chalmers w T as now passing beyond boy- 
hood, and, if his friends were watching his 
progress, it must have been to them a time 
of much anxiety. A boy who carries the 
pursuits and tastes of childhood along with 
him, to the neglect or want of interest in 
graver and more manly employments, has 
much need of an awakening and stimu- 



LIEE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 21 



lating element, if he is to make his mark in 
life; and one thing may almost always be 
observed, when this is to be the case, — the 
youth will find {hat motive, and, almost 
insensibly to himself or his friends, will put 
away with the child, childish things, and 
become in earnest, if only on one single 
point. 

At the commencement of his third session 
in college, the motive came to Chalmers in 
the form of fondness for mathematical study. 
Dr. Hanna says : "It was better, perhaps, 
that a mind so excitable as his had not an 
earlier intellectual development; that, un- 
taxed and unexhausted in childhood, it 
should have been suffered (growing all the 
while in strength) to wait till a science, for 
which it had a strong natural affinity, took 
hold upon it, upon w T hich its energies put 
themselves forth so spontaneously, so ar- 
dently, so undividedly, and so persevering- 
ly." " 

His love for his new found treasure was 
so absorbing as to lay him open to many 
tricks from his fellow-students. When so 



22 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



abstracted that he was entirely unconscious 
of what was going on around, they would 
often arouse him by a burst of merriment 
at his expense, and then he would good- 
naturedly join, with his common affection- 
ate expression, " Very well, my good 
• lad!" 

For the first time in his life, Chalmers 
had begun to think, and his mind, powerful 
and original, began to question the sta- 
bility and soundness of the views, both in 
regard to politics and religion, to which he 
had been educated. His parents were 
strict and unbending in their religious 
opinions — Chalmers now thought unwar- 
rantably severe ; and recoiling from the 
sanctity and exactness of the Scotch home 
life, he sought refuge in the more liberal 
and less scriptural views of his teachers and 
companions at the University of St. An- 
drews. 

Generous and ardent, there was some- 
thing in the liberality and enlargement of 
the new views which was more in conso- 
nance with his natural disposition, and, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



23 



having no special religious feeling of his 
own, being only a Christian in head and 
name, but not in heart, he went on im- 
bibing more and more deeply erroneous 
opinions, from which long years of after 
repentance were needed to set him at 
liberty. His political views also under- 
went a change. His father was very con- 
servative, a strict tory, and Thomas began 
to think a change in political relations, not 
only necessary for the temporal, but much 
more for the spiritual emancipation of the 
world. All old time theories he looked 
upon as the offspring of an uneducated, 
unenlightened age, and entirely beneath the 
capacities or attention of those who called 
themselves men in the present time. 

He seems, through all these mental 
changes, to have adhered to his boyish 
determination of making a minister. Prob- 
ably unconscious of his own want of per- 
sonal godliness, he decided, as soon as his 
University course was ended, to commence 
the study of divinity, and, in November, 
1795, we find him, at the age of fifteen, 



24 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



enrolled as a student, with theology his 
ostensible object of study. But here again 
his favorite branch of mathematics became 
to him a very absorbing thing. He learned 
the French language, and thus gained access 
to many books upon higher mathematics, 
which had been unknown to him before. 
It seems strange to us to hear of a boy of 
his age studying divinity ; but not more 
so than to hear of him so engrossed and 
delighted with a dry study, as to follow it 
to the exclusion of all other subjects of 
youthful interest. It is rather amusing to 
hear him, at the time when our boys are 
not prepared to enter our colleges, blamed 
for not attending to the powerful and able 
theological lecturer who was interesting the 
whole religious community. And then the 
reason given is also one with which our 
young people would find but little sym- 
pathy. Talking with one of his theological 
associates, he accuses him of being a Cal- 
vinist, and invites him to Anstruther, where 
"they all agree with you. 5 ' In reply, the 
friend refers to a very able lecture, which 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



25 



the professor had delivered a day or two 
before as a really masterly defence of one 
of the deepest points of Calvinistic doctrine, 
upon the scheme of Jonathan Edwards. 
His reply was, " I was not paying attention 
to it, but thinking of something else," 
probably following out some mathematical 
problem. " Why," w r as the question, 
" did you not attend to a disquisition so 
able ? " " Because," he answered, " I ques- 
tion the sincerity of the lecturer." 

At the close of his first year of theo- 
logical study, the same friend says of him, 
" He most certainly passed through that 
year's curriculum without making entry on 
the theological field, and there can be no 
doubt that his system did not go beyond 
sublime ideas of the Divine Omnipresence, 
Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Goodness, 
and the grandeur and extent and variety of 
his works, combined with some lively con- 
ceptions of the character, the teaching, and 
the example of the author of Christianity." 

The first interest which we read of his 
evincing in his new pursuit was aroused 



26 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



by the perusal of the works of our own 
President Edwards. Imagine a boy, not 
yet sixteen, so intent upon the works of the 
great metaphysician, that of him his pro- 
fessor says : " He studied Edwards on Free- 
will with such ardor that he seemed to 
regard nothing else, could scarcely talk of 
any thing else, and one was almost afraid 
of his mind's losing its balance." Twenty- 
four years after this time, looking back to 
this period, Chalmers himself writes : " I 
remember when a student of divinity, and 
long ere I could relish evangelical senti- 
ment, I spent nearly a twelvemonth in a 
sort of mental elysium, and the one idea 
which ministered to my soul all its raptures 
was the magnificence of the Godhead, and 
the universal subordination of all things to 
the one great purpose for which he evolved 
and was supporting creation." This men- 
tal elysium seems, in his professor's lan- 
guage, almost to have amounted to " his 
mind's losing its balance," for he used to 
wander in the country early in the morning 
and dwell upon this one idea, until he says 



LIPE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



27 



" not a single hour elapsed in which the 
overpoweringly impressive imagination did 
not stand out bright before his mental eye." 

From this region of metaphysical specu- 
lation, this boy minister was recalled by a 
visit to his brother James, then in business 
in Liverpool. 

During this visit, he kept a close journal, 
so simple and practical that we are told 
it read more like the writing of some 
honest burgher's son going to settle him- 
self as a merchant, than as the production 
of the young enthusiast. We find no part 
of this journal recorded, but it would be 
interesting to us to know how the boy 
who would read and enjoy Edwards on 
Freewill, and acquire a language for the 
sake of access to higher mathematics, 
would look upon the docks and busy, 
crowded streets of busy Liverpool. 

All letters written by him at this period 
are said to have been wanting in the very 
first elements of correct writing; and we 
imagine this journal, with its practical good 
sense and thought, strangely set forth in a 



28 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



cramped hand, and words whose orthogra- 
phy, at least, would have been questionable. 
During this third year, Chalmers made his 
first attempts in composition ; struggling 
as he did with an imperfect preparatory 
course, unable legibly to register what 
thoughts he had, it would be a wonder 
if we read of these attempts as other 
"than simplest and plainest, with scarce a 
gleam of fancy or sentiment ever rising to 
play over the page ; " but also giving to- 
kens of a " very vigorous intellect disci- 
plining itself at once into exact thinking 
and correct, perspicuous expression, never 
allowing itself to travel beyond the bounds 
of the analysis or argument on which it 
was engaged, never wandering away to 
pluck a single flower out of the garden of 
the imagination, by which illustration or 
adornment might be supplied." 

His attention turned to the use of his 
pen ; he soon mastered it as he had every 
thing else, and began to write with the 
vigor, power, and beauty which afterwards 
distinguished him. It is told of him, that, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



29 



when sixteen years of age, he took his turns 
with the other theological students in at- 
tending prayers in the chapel at St. An- 
drews, and on his first effort astonished 
and delighted all who heard him by an 
amplification of the Lord's prayer, sentence 
by sentence. The wonderful gift of words 
came naturally to him, and the description 
which we read of this occasion reminds us 
of the descent of the Spirit and the gift of 
tongues. It also shows us how the head 
can offer a remarkable prayer, while the 
heart is cold and motionless ; for, excepting 
as an intellectual exercise, we have no 
evidence that religion was any thing to the 
young and earnest student. 

It is an interesting fact, that during the 
session many years afterwards, when Dr. 
Chalmers was the head and front of that 
noble band which had met to contend for 
right in the face of all the power and 
wealth of their native land, — seeking to 
rouse and fire them with an enthusiasm 
which should carry them through all the 
trials and deprivations before them, he 



30 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



selected for an address the very words of a 
college composition which he had written, 
when a student, in Divinity Hall ; and 
nothing that he said had a more thrilling 
and immediate effect. 

Eight years had been passed in prepa- 
ration ; a family of fourteen, it may be 
supposed, made the means of his father 
none too large to meet the daily demands 
made upon it; and to the generous heart 
of Chalmers, the call was clearly for him 
not to remain any longer in his seclusion, 
but to go out into the world and take care 
of himself. 

He was now eighteen years of age ; but 
to be settled over a parish was accom- 
plished in a very different manner from 
what it is with us. 

The Church of Scotland is provided with 
benefices, each under the patronage of 
some wealthy or aristocratic family ; and a 
living, as it is called, must be obtained 
through the influence or good-will of one 
of these. 

Young, inexperienced, without any among 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 31 

the great to specially care for him, he was 
but a short time in deciding upon the only 
way which seemed open, by which he 
could help himself, to procure the office of 
tutor; for a tutor becoming known in a 
literary way was very apt to be considered 
by the family in which he taught, as the 
most eligible person for any parish vacancy 
which might be in their power to bestow, 
while he was with them. 



CHAPTER IIL 

Mr. Chalmers found a situation as tutor ; 
but what a change from the secluded, 
happy life of his college home ! He was 
ushered into a family of ten children, all 
to be his especial charge. The eldest was 
only fifteen, three years younger than him- 
self; and, speaking of him in a letter to 
Dr. Brown, his former professor, he says : 
" The eldest boy, about fifteen, who has, 



32 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



been but two years at college, seems to have 
no idea of any respect due to my office. 
His behavior not only made his own man- 
agement a matter of difficulty, but had also 
a tendency to weaken my authority over 
my other pupils." 

This was only one of a list of grievances 
which he found in his new quarters. In the 
same letter he says : " The people of the 
house do not seem to know the place in 
which a tutor should stand ; hence a cold, 
distant, contemptuous reserve, which I was 
never accustomed to, and which exposes 
me to the most disagreeable feelings." 
Again, in the same letter: "I am seven 
hours every day with the children, and, 
making allowance for necessary avocations, 
I have not above one hour for my own 
studies. I consider it likewise an un- 
worthy treatment that I have not a room 
to myself, but that some of my pupils sleep 
in it along with me." Irritating as these 
sources of discomfort were to him, they do 
not seem to have roused his indignation in 
comparison with the daily indignities to 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. . 33 

which he was subjected by being considered 
as no more than an upper servant by the 
head of the family. In a letter to his father, 
he says : " It was a great object of mine, in 

entering the 's family, and I believe 

you had it yourself in view, that I should 
have an opportunity of seeing men and 
manners, and wear off those habits which 
I had contracted by excessive solitude, and 
which unfitted me for social converse. But 
my present circumstances are rather un- 
favorable to these ends. In consequence 
of the low idea they have got of the respect 
due to a tutor, it is impossible for me to 
talk with freedom and confidence. I have 
observed, more than once, my attempts to 
participate in the conversation discounte- 
nanced by a frown of superior dignity. 
Hence, those w T ho frequent the house and 
who would bow full low in your dining- 
room, regard me as unworthy of their no- 
tice, and return my salutation with cold 
indifference." In another letter he says : 
" I have never mentioned particulars to 
you ; but do you think I can feel agreeably 
3 



34 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



from being thought unworthy to sup in the 
same room with the family? My pupils 
often have the privilege, when there is com- 
pany, while I, regarded as inferior to them, 
have supper in my own room." As if to 
apologize for what may appear like unjust 
fault finding, with the characteristic frank- 
ness of his nature he goes on to say, 44 1 
know there are some people, who, impetu- 
ous about trifles, take fire at every little 
thing, and make a great fuss about their 
dignity and their respect; but I would ever 
distinguish between such a silly, contempti- 
ble dignity and that dignity which is never 
offended but when it has just grounds of 
offence." Again : 44 1 do not know what it 
is to act the part of an underling. Neither 
my own feelings, nor respect to my friends, 
will allow me to sit in silent submission 
under any glaring indignity." 

And so passed the summer months away ; 
Chalmers quietly and conscientiously trying 
to do his duty as tutor to the ill-regulated, 
ill-behaved children under his care, while 
their parents alternately frowned upon him, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 35 



or endeavored, by cold and distant manner, 
to reduce him to the place of a menial. 
" Even the very servants," he says, " catch- 
ing the spirit of the house, were disposed to 
be insolent ; " and all the time his young, 
strong, proud heart went beating on, swell- 
ing with each new indignity, until it seemed 
as if they could no longer be borne, and 
then hushing the strife to rest by the re- 
membrance of the little ones at home, and 
the already over-burdening parental cares. 
One single instance, when his self-imposed 
restraint burst over the bounds laid upon it, 
alone is narrated. He was living near a town 
in which, through means of introductions 
given him by Fifeshire friends, he had already 
formed some acquaintance. Whenever he 
knew that there was to be a supper from 
which he was excluded, he ordered one in 
a neighboring inn, to which he invited one or 
more of his friends. To make his purpose all 
the more manifest, he waited until the ser- 
vant entered with his solitary repast, when 
he ordered it away, saying, " I sup elsewhere, 
to-night." Such curiously-timed tutorship 



36 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



suppers were not very likely to be relished 
by Mr. , who charged him with un- 
seemly and unreasonable pride. " Sir ! " 
said he, "the very servants are complaining 
of your haughtiness ; you have far too 
much pride!" "There are two kinds of 
pride," was the reply. " There is that pride 
which lords it over inferiors ; and there is 
that pride w T hich rejoices in refusing the 
insolence of superiors. The first I have 
none of ; the second, I glory in." 

Notwithstanding all these annoyances, 
he remained with the family until the close 
of the year, when he returned to St. An- 
drews, and solicited to be examined pre- 
paratory to his being licensed as a preacher 
of the gospel. He had not yet completed 
his nineteenth year; but it is probable that 
all the trials of feeling to which he had 
been subjected during the past year had 
done much to develop and discipline his 
character. So marked already had he be- 
come, that although a rule of the presbytery 
refused to take students before the age of 
twenty-one, " unless " — a clause so seldom 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 37 



needed that even its memory seemed to 
have passed away — " such as applied under 
that age were judged by the General and 
Provincial Assembly to have such rare and 
singular qualities as made them meet and 
worthy thereof." 

Under this clause Chalmers was exam- 
ined and licensed as a preacher of the gos- 
pel, on the 31st of July, 1799. 

At nineteen years of age, he entered upon 
the duties and responsibilities of the pasto- 
ral office, and had this presbytery been able 
to look forward even fifty years, they would 
have taken to themselves much credit for 
their decision. 

It would be extremely difficult just at 
this point in the history of Chalmers' life, 
to depict definitely his character. There is 
something so entirely different in the profes- 
sional life abroad and in America, that what 
would be only in the ordinary course of af- 
fairs there, would seem strange and unheard 
of here. The whole church organization, 
for instance, is one which could hardly be 
understood by our churches. The idea of 



38 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the people having little or nothing to do 
with the choice of their pastor, of there be- 
ing stated religious exercises which were 
seldom omitted and never exceeded, of 
the line of conduct between pastor and 
people being so clearly marked out and de- 
fined that nothing more was claimed or 
given, would to us seem little less than tyr- 
anny. But to a people accustomed to very 
little liberty of choice in politics, nothing is 
more natural than to expect very little in 
religion ; and a new pastor, chosen by the 
wealthy man who holds the living in his 
hands, was received in the same uncom- 
plaining manner in which they receive the 
new bailiff or overseer. In the same way 
as the gifts of the church are generally mat- 
ters of personal favor, they are bestowed 
often without reference to the fitness of the 
candidate for the office which he is anxious 
to hold ; and many a small, godly town, 
which has long enjoyed the pious ministra- 
tions of some aged servant, whom at last 
his Lord has called to his reward, finds it- 
self under the charge of a young, gay, irre- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



39 



ligious man. who has entered the holy of- 
fice as one of the few resorts from that bu- 
siness which his own taste, or the pride of 
his family, prevents him from choosing. 

With Chalmers, the ministry seems to 
have been selected, not from any love for 
doing good or earnest purpose to save souls 
or advance Christ's kingdom on earth, but 
as a matter of preference over the other 
professions, a field for which his natural tal- 
ents were best adapted ; or, in a few ex- 
pressive words, where he i; could make the 
most of himself.*' We find, even so late 
as his receiving his license, no evidence of 
his having any religion but that of the head 
and of the judgment, and yet without a 
doubt as to his perfect sincerity, and fitness 
for the solemn work before him, he looks 
around for a parish in which to settle. In 
no immediate hurry for this event, however, 
he determined to take a journey on foot to 
Edinburgh, to meet four brothers who were 
coming hither from different parts of the 
world ; and here it would perhaps be inter- 
esting to give a slight sketch of his family. 



40 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



His thirteen brothers and sisters had left 
childhood behind them, and in common 
with himself, had chosen their own way in 
life. One was established in business in 
Liverpool, and three of the others, the white- 
crested waves had beckoned to find a home 
on their bosom. All their young lives, this 
melody of the sea had mingled with their 
being, until the life of a landsman seemed 
tame and dull to them, and amid the re- 
grets and fears of both father and mother, 
one after the other had sailed away, finding 
new interest and loves in the sailor life. 
One of his sisters was married, and the 
others, grow 7 n and growing to woman's es- 
tate, made that most delightful of homes — 
one where many voices and many hearts 
join to fill the full harmony of domestic 
life. Chalmers seems to have loved his 
relatives ardently, and we find him every- 
where, and under all circumstances, looking 
to his father first, for counsel and approba- 
tion, and although often restive, and acting 
his own pleasure in opposition to the known 
wishes of his parents, still restless and un- 



LIEE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



41 



happy, writing constantly letters full of ex- 
planations and reasons for persisting in his 
own way, and asking, as the one thing nec- 
essary for his happiness, his parents' bless- 
ing. This spirit we find in the following 
sentence, quoted without pausing in our 
narrative, to notice now the occasion upon 
which it was written : 

" I hope you will not distress yourself 
with any suspicion as to my indifference to 
parochial duties. Accuse me of indifference 
when you have observed me deficient in 
any of the essential duties, when you have 
observed me shrinking from any of those 
labors which the care of a parish imposes." 

One of his great objects now in leaving 
Anstruther, and hastening up to Edinburgh, 
was to give lessons in navigation to his 
younger brother David, whom, having cho- 
sen the sea, he wished to have possessed 
of every advantage which could render his 
life pleasant and successful. He went on 
foot from Anstruther to Liverpool, and on 
his journey stopped to spend the Sabbath 
at the quiet little town of Wigan. Dusty 



42 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and travel-stained, we can see the young 
Scot, with a veneration inborn for holy hours, 
entering the town, looking around perhaps 
for the minister's house, where he meant to 
ask that hospitality which the brethren 
never refused one to the other. Perhaps 
Chalmers carried in his face an intro- 
duction, perhaps that reputation which 
classed him among the few to whom the 
almost obsolete clause of the presbytery 
would apply had travelled down before 
him ; however it may have been, he cer- 
tainly received a welcome, and, what was 
more, an invitation to preach on the coming 
Sabbath in the village church. 

It was a neat, plain edifice, called Chapel 
Lane Church. The name suggests an old 
country church, such as we never see in 
America, — a gray stone edifice, without 
one solitary attempt at ornament or ele- 
gance ; of one story, with a little belfry, from 
which a soft bell, swelling over the hills and 
valleys of the storied country, brings in its 
mellowed tone memories of the good old 
covenanters ; ivy clad, with its rustic door 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 43 



and its small panes of window-glass hidden 
from sight by the pendant wreaths and 
green, clustering leaves. It was on an Au- 
gust Sabbath morning, this epoch in Chal- 
mers' life, and we have no doubt the sun 
rose bright and clear, and the birds sung 
loudly, and the insects twittered cheerfully 
and happily, as he walked thither. And 
the heart of the boy-minister heard it all? 
and, with that keen eye which discerned 
all the smaller as well as greater beauties of 
nature, gathered anew self-reliance and en- 
thusiasm for the chosen work before him. 
Writing of this sermon to his father, in the 
free way which one member of a family 
speaks to another, his brother says : 

" His mode of delivery is expressive, his 
language beautiful, and his arguments very 
forcible and strong. His sermon contained 
a due mixture, both of the doctrinal and 
practical parts of religion ; but I think it 
inclined rather more to the latter. The 
subject, however, required it. It is the 
opinion of those who pretend to be judges, 
that he will shine in the pulpit, but as yet 



44 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS 



he is rather awkward in his appearance. 
We, however, are at some pains in adjust- 
ing his dress, manner. &c. : but he does not 
seem to pay any great regard to it him- 
self." 

This letter is invaluable to us. as giving 
a distinct picture of him. Awkward as 
most boys of nineteen, disregarding his 
dress and manner, but with beautiful lan- 
guage, forcible and strong arguments, he 
presents a fitting illustration of the power 
of genius to make itself felt and acknowl- 
edged even in the absence of all external 
aid. But the brother, in the midst of his 
pride and affection, did not forget that he 
was writing to that Scotch father of the old 
school who regarded with favor nothing 
which was not thoroughly " rooted and 
grounded." Therefore he goes on to say. 
relating to that point of most vital impor- 
tance, ;> his mathematical studies seem to 
occupy more of his time than his religious." 
AY ho can tell the struggle in the good 
fathers heart which this letter must have 
awakened ? Pride and pleasure in this one 



LITE OF THOMAS CHALMERS 



45 



of his flock, whom, chosen from ail the rest, 
he had dedicated again and again in ear- 
nest solemnity to his Heavenly Father's 
service, and a foreboding, which his own 
simple and earnest piety only rendered more 
sad. lest that by any means, when he had 
preached to others, he himself " should be a 
castaway." 

On the following Sabbath he preached 
the same sermon again, in Liverpool, and 
his brother James says of it. "it was. in gen- 
eral, well liked." Four of the brothers now 
met ; and Thomas, as he had planned, 
commenced giving lessons to the younger, 
David, in navigation. This meeting, how- 
ever, was very much saddened, particularly 
to Thomas, by the death of their brother 
William, whom they had hoped to have 
with them also. William was not what 
his parents could wish. An idle boyhood 
had brought rather dissolute habits to the 
young man, and. leaving the office where 
he was " apprenticed as a lawyer," he went 
to sea. Sailing for China, he was in a 
vessel which was blown up by a boat's crew 



46 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



of Indiamen, who, creeping around in the 
night, thrust lighted matches into every 
port-hole, and retired, leaving the devoted 
crew to their fate. And a terrible one it 
was. A few hours after, the vessel blew 
up, and William Chalmers, with many of 
his mates, was hurried unexpectedly into 
another world. It would seem as if a deep, 
solemn impression must have been made 
upon the remaining brothers; but we read 
of no such thing. On the contrary, we find 
Thomas, after two months' residence in 
Liverpool, anxious to go to Edinburgh to 
find some business beside preaching. A 
situation became vacant, and he hastened 
thither to secure it, if possible ; but it was 
too late. The opportunity, however, of re- 
maining in Edinburgh and studying mathe- 
matics with Professor Playfair, was not to 
be resisted ; so he determined to take up 
his residence there, to be ready for whatever 
might open. He finds a pleasant home in 
the family of his mother's uncle, Mr. 
Cowan, of whom he writes to his father, 
" his conduct is distinguished by all the 
regard of a parent." 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 47 



He preached but once, he tells us, in 
Edinburgh during the winter. Spending 
his time attending lectures on mathematics, 
dreading an "interruption" from a call to 
the pulpit; and the daily incidents and 
events of his life were of such a character 
as to draw his attention more and more 
from his profession. The death of the Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry, sudden, and calculated 
to attract and rivet interest upon it, called 
Chalmers to attend not so much to the 
great moral lesson which God taught by it, 
as to science, which, by this death, had lost 
one of its greatest ornaments. He became 
deeply interested in Dr. Hope as the suc- 
cessor to the vacant office, attended his 
lectures faithfully, and, when he should have 
been writing sermons, we read of manuscript 
volumes^ in w 7 hich he recorded these favorite 
lectures. During this time he preached 
twice in St. Andrews, but says, in a 
letter to a friend : " There are applications 
pouring in from all quarters ; but I find 
there is a necessity for resisting them. I 
have already exhausted all the different 



48 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



terms of expression which soften or give 
grace to a refusal, and 1 mast now content 
myself with using peremptory and decided 
terms." 



CHAPTER IV. 

While Mr. Chalmers was busy in his 
attendance on lectures, the friend to whom 
this letter, quoted in the last chapter, was 
written, was interesting himself to procure 
him a settlement. He was about to resign 
the pastoral care of Carus, a small town not 
far from St. Andrews ; and its neighborhood 
to this institution, together with its own 
romantic and pleasant scenery and its quiet 
and intelligent people, made it seem a very 
desirable residence. 

Without trouble, this parish was obtained 
for Mr. Chalmers; and we find him enter- 
ing upon his new duties with an ardor in 
some degree commensurate with their im- 
portance. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



49 



Instead of going to the solitary manse at 
Cams, he was invited to live with his friend 
Mr. Shaw, at the parish of Roberton, seven 
miles from Cams. The fact of a minister 
living away from his people seems only to 
have given him uneasiness, for fear it would 
displease the parish, or the gentleman in 
whose gift the place was, but these objec- 
tions were soon overcome ; and, in a letter 
from him to his father, dated January 13, 
1802, he writes as follows : 

" The people in this country are kind and 
hospitable in the extreme. You cannot 
conceive the kindness both Mr. Shaw and 
myself have experienced from the farmers 
around in sending us peats, hay, and straw." 
And again : " Yon will be pleased to hear 
I am on the best terms with several respect- 
able clergymen in the neighborhood, who 
are very kind and attentive to me." 

These brief notices are nearly all that we 
find of his personal intercourse with his first 
parishioners. He was now twenty-two 
years of age, and, though frank and cordial 
in his manners, was fond of being alone, 
4 



50 



LIFE OP THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and uninterruptedly attending to his studies. 
That these were of a miscellaneous kind 
may be inferred from extracts still from his 
letters to his father, whom with filial rever- 
ence he seems to have kept fully informed 
almost of his daily progress. Writing of 
parish duties, he says : " Parochial exami- 
nations are quite common in this country. 
I begin that duty on Monday fortnight, 
and, as the parish is extensive, it will take 
me upward of a fortnight to accomplish it. 
The mode is to divide the parish into a 
number of small districts, in each of which 
you are accommodated with lodgings, &c 5 
in one or other of the farmer's houses. 
I am now quite free from sore throat, and 
the people in Cams have not lost a Sunday 
since my arrival. They are quite satisfied 
with my non-residence." 

But the ministration of their young 
preacher was not to be long enjoyed by 
" the people of Cams." The winter months 
had hardly passed before we find him a 
candidate for two new places : one, the 
larger and more desirable perish of Kilma- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



51 



ny ; the other, the mathematical assistant- 
ship in the University of St. Andrews, 
which had recently become vacant. Noth- 
ing could be more desirable, because so 
congenial to his taste, than this last appoint- 
ment. It was now the highest ambition of 
his heart to fill some mathematical chair in 
a Scotch university, and to this the work of 
the Christian ministry seemed trivial and 
secondary. What wonder, when within his 
own heart there had not yet taken place 
that entire dedication which hallows and 
consecrates the office ! At the end of April 
both appointments were secured to him, 
and, removing from the manse, where he 
began to find the company of his friend 
even an interruption, he devoted himself, as 
he says, " with undisturbed attention to his 
mathematical preparations/*' and yet, writ- 
ing to his watchful father, who probably 
intimated the impropriety of his course, he 
says, as if in way of explanation and apol- 
ogy : 

" I have been much resorted to of late for 
my assistance on sacramental occasions. 



52 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



This, in so thinly peopled a country, neces- 
sarily subjects me to long journeys, which I 
find, however, to be a pleasant and healthy 
relief from the labors of study. I don't 
think I will ever allow myself to be so car- 
ried away with the attractions of science as 
not to intermingle a sufficient degree of ex- 
ercise and amusement." 

It is not probable that Chalmers consid- 
ered the sacramental occasion as in the light 
either of " exercise or amusement," but the 
connection is unfortunate. 

On the 2d of November we find him lec- 
turing to the students in St. Andrews, with 
a fervor and enthusiasm such as the dry 
details of mathematics had never awakened 
before. The parish in Kilmany was not 
yet vacant, so, bidding farewell to his first 
home and first people, he devoted himself 
whole-heartedly to teaching. After the uni- 
versity session closed, he wished to go to 
Edinburgh, there to prosecute his studies; 
but his father, seeing and fearing the evil to 
result from this all-engrossing love of science, 
strove to win him to a few quiet months in his 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



53 



home at Anstruther. No letter is given us 
in which the old man pleads with his son ; 
but we are left to infer its earnestness from 
Chalmers' answer, a brief extract from which 
will give more decidedly than can be found 
anywhere else, Chalmers' religious condition 
at this important period : 

" I am astonished that the measure pro- 
posed in my last should appear in the slight- 
est degree objectionable. I hope that my 
principles as to the important subject are 
already established, and that they do not 
require any extraordinary exercises of reflec- 
tion at present. I have had sufficient time 
for reflection, and I do not see how the re- 
laxation of a few days should have any 
effect in overthrowing those calm and de- 
cided sentiments which I have already 
formed. I confess^I like not those views of 
religion which suppose that the business, or 
even the innocent amusements, of the world 
have a dangerous tendency to unsettle the 
mind from serious and elevating exer- 
cises." 

Upon this letter his biographer remarks : 



54 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



" The truth was, that, on the greatest and 
most affecting of all subjects, the ground of 
a common understanding did not as yet 
exist between them (Chalmers and his 
father). The father's suggestion was set 
aside. It but remained for him now, in 
faith and with prayer, to await the time 
(and he lived to see it, and was glad) when 
he should not only become intelligible, but 
secure the completest and profoundest sym- 
pathy." Mr. Chalmers went to Edinburgh, 
and probably forgot his coming ministerial 
duties in the more pressing call of teaching. 

On the 12th of May, 1805, the new min- 
ister came to his home in Kilmany. Situ- 
ated not far from the Fifeshire coast, with 
ranges of hills to form a rich and varied 
background, Kilmany lay in a well-watered 
and fertile valley, as beautiful and winning 
a place as any nature-loving heart could 
desire. The parishioners numbered but 
about one hundred and fifty families, and 
those were entirely agricultural. An intel- 
ligent, affectionate people stood ready to 
welcome him, and to them he seems to 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 55 



have given at once his heart, and, through 
all the varied scenes of an eventful life, to 
have turned back to these earlier periods of 
his residence with them as among the hap- 
piest of his lifetime. His home became to 
him at once a subject of much interest. It 
was an old, dilapidated manse. For many- 
years it had sheltered the pastor and his 
family, and had grown into the affections 
of the people as thoroughly as if the prayers 
and praises which had been offered under 
its roof had power to consecrate even the 
dead wood-work. All these associations, 
however, were foreign to the mind of the 
new-comer, and, determining to keep his 
interest for a new manse, he sent for two of 
his sisters to come to him as housekeepers, 
and settled down to his duties with the 
freshness and buoyancy so peculiar to his 
mind. 

Of his earlier occupations, Dr. Hanna 
says : " The arrangements of the indoor 
and outdoor economy, in all of which he 
took the liveliest interest ; the needful prep- 
arations for the pulpit; the visitation and 



56 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



examination of his parish, in the course of 
which, to use his own favorite phrase, mov- 
ing ' with his affections flying before him, 5 
he made himself acquainted with every 
family and familiar at every fireside, win- 
ning back such rich responses of gratitude 
as such genuine good-will was so well fitted 
to draw forth." 

Daring this time his duties as mathe- 
matical teacher were also sedulously per- 
formed. Kilmany was only nine miles dis- 
tant from St. Andrews, and it was quite the 
custom for the professors there to hold the 
office of pastor in some adjacent town ; but 
an unexpected obstacle was suddenly placed 
in this path to distinction. There had been 
between himself and the professor whose 
assistant he was, many and quite serious 
differences through the session, at the close 
of which, some things were said and done 
which gave to Chalmers, as he thought, 
just cause of offence. During the examina- 
tion which was customary at the close of 
the session, he took occasion to indulge in 
a severe invective against the professor, of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



57 



which the following amusing account is 
given, showing the power which Dr. Chal- 
mers had already attained of influencing, 
by his strength and fervor, even the minds 
of the most highly educated. " The speech 
was long and sarcastic. It was amusing to 
see the Academic Board : old Mr. Cook, 
irritated and vexed ; Mr. Hall, puffy and 
fidgetty ; Dr. Playfair, getting up twice and 
thrice and tugging the speaker by the arm ; 
Dr. Hunter, with unvarying countenance, 
his eyes sedately fastened on the floor; Dr. 
Rotheram, laughing and in anger by 
turns." At length Dr. Hill interfered, and, 
with some difficulty, silenced Chalmers, 
who proceeded with his examination as 
coolly as if nothing had passed. Of course, 
after such an exhibition of his spirit and 
temper, he received from his professor no- 
tice that his services would be no longer 
needed as teacher, and, unfortunately for 
all, the reason assigned was not the true 
one, but "inefficiency as a teacher." Here, 
then, if it should be believed and accepted 
by the public, was a blight to all Mr. Chal- 



58 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



mers' hopes for the future. His whole 
proud and indignant nature roused itself at 
once, in opposition to what he considered 
an unjust and iniquitous decision. He de- 
termined with his characteristic energy and 
strong will, to go to St. Andrews, and with- 
out leave or license, wholly independent of 
any organization whatever, to open mathe- 
matical lectures on his own responsibility. 

In America, this would not seem so 
strange a thing, for nothing is more com- 
mon with our young men than that over- 
rating of their talents and acquirements 
which puts them often in opposition or con- 
tention with those both older and wiser. But 
in Scotland, where the lines were drawn so 
distinctly and sharply, and the conservatism 
of the literary institution, as established as 
that of the church, or even royalty itself, no 
such innovation as this now proposed by 
Chalmers had ever been known, and the 
astonishment and consternation of both fac- 
ulty and students may be imagined, when, 
coming from Kilmany to St. Andrews, he 
announced his intention of establishing " an 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 59 



open and avowed rivalry within the very- 
shadow of the university." He instituted 
three classes in mathematics, beside one in 
chemistry? and of course had no time for 
Kilmany but the few sacred Sabbath hours. 
He went thither every Saturday, but re- 
turned to St. Andrews early on Monday 
morning. What shall we say of Chalmers 
now ? Surely it seems to us as if the Spirit 
of the Lord, weary with striving to awaken 
in this chosen instrument some due sense of 
the importance of his holy calling, was for- 
saking him, and leaving him, by the fulfil- 
ment of his plans for worldly ambition, to 
w r ork out his own destruction. In a letter 
at this time to his father, he writes: "My 
hands are full of business. I am living just 
now the life I seem to be formed for, a 
life of constant and unremitting activity. 
Deprive me of employment, and you con- 
demn me to a life of misery and disgust." 
The journal which he now kept bears a 
faithful record of a mind tossed and dis- 
tracted by personal, private animosities, and 
public opposition ; but Chalmers had never 



60 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



as yet determined to do a thing, without 
succeeding in the end, and we will pass 
rapidly over this sad and unfortunate pe- 
riod in his life, to the time when, an ac- 
knowledged and accepted lecturer, he had 
by the force of his genius, broken down all 
the barriers which had been placed to ob- 
struct him, and turned the tide of public 
opinion strongly in his favor. 

There was a manly, generous independ- 
ence about his whole character, which ap- 
pealed strongly to the pride and affection of 
his countrymen ; and, to his honor be it 
recorded, that the very professor upon whom 
Chalmers had from the first bent the full 
fury of his wrath was among those who 
recognized the man struggling for the posi- 
tion which was rightfully his own, and held 
out his hand to assist him. Chalmers' end 
was now gained, his reputation as a teacher 
forever established, and he had time to look 
behind at those almost forgotten pastoral 
duties and that almost neglected profession. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



61 



CHAPTER V. 

The presbytery were alarmed. Such an 
example of temper, of bold and fearless con- 
tention, certainly did not become a minis- 
ter of that meek and forbearing faith which 
commands one cheek to be turned to him 
who has already smitten the other ; and 
should such a flagrant act as this be passed 
over, what evil consequences might not 
ensue ! News reached Chalmers amid that 
very happy, busy life at St. Andrews, that 
the Association . were about to subject him 
to ecclesiastical discipline ; and, turning at 
once from his literary pursuits, he set him- 
self to combat this new enemy. He ex- 
pected to be summoned before the presby- 
tery, and to be compelled to give up his 
classes. In anticipation of this event, he 
prepared a defence, from which we shall 
make only a few extracts. 

" My intention to reside in St. Andrews 
originated in a motive which, I contend, is 



62 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



justifiable Unfortunate misunder- 
standing arose, which it is neither for you 
to hear nor for me, at present, to explain. . 
... I have few friends, no patronage, to 
help me forward in the career of an honora- 
ble ambition. All that I had to trust in was 
my academic reputation, and the confidence 

of an enlightened public I had 

nothing to expect from the spirit of a grasp- 
ing monopoly. I must either have resigned 
myself to the silence of despair, or attempt- 
ed the testimony of an independent public. 
.... Compel me to retire, and I shall be 
fallen indeed. I would feel myself blighted 
in the eyes of all my acquaintance. I 
would never lift up my face in society. I 
would busy myself in the oblivion of shame 
and solitude. I would hide me from the 
world. I would be overpowered by the 
feeling of my own disgrace. The torments 
of self-reflection would follow me ; they 
would haunt my dreams ; they would lay 
me on a bed of torture ; they would con- 
demn me to a life of restless and never- 
ceasing anxiety. Death would be to me 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



63 



the most welcome of all messengers. It 
would cut short the remainder of my igno- 
minious days. It would lay me in the 
grave's peaceful retreat. It would withdraw 
me from the agitations of a life that has 
been persecuted by the injustice of ene- 
mies, and, still more, distracted by the 
treachery of violated friendship." 

In such burning words did Chalmers pour 
out his regret and indignation. Now he 
was in the hands of those, who, holding his 
classical reputation in their power, would 
mete out justice impartially; and he kneiv 
that he had done wrong. Already his con- 
science was beginning to drown the voice 
of worldly applause ; and, " still and small " 
though it was, it made itself heard, and 
drew from the yet striving young man the 
earnest utterance of unsubdued feeling. A 
short note, addressed to his friend, Dr. Brown 
of St. Andrews, gives the end of the exami- 
nation. 

" My dear sir, — You will be surprised to 
hear that the long-threatened discussion 
w T as at last introduced into the presbytery 
to-day. 



64 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



" It met with the fate it deserved ; was 
quashed and reprobated. The discussions 
were all in public. A numerous audience 
attended, and our argumentation lasted two 
hours. Yours, with much esteem, 

" Thomas Chalmers." 

But he was disappointed in his opinion 
that the presbytery were silenced. On at- 
tempting, the next winter, to deliver chemi- 
cal lectures at St. Andrews, a vote was 
introduced pronouncing it improper in Mr. 
Chalmers to give lectures in chemistry, and 
requesting that they should be discontinued. 
When Chalmers had intelligence of this, he 
addressed another letter to the body, of 
which we give only the closing sentences : 
" I spurn at the attempt, as I would at the 
petty insolence of a tyrant. I reject it as 
the interference of an officious intermeddler. 
To the last sigh of my heart I will struggle 
for independence, and eye with proud dis- 
dain the man who presumes to invade it." 
And the chemical lectures were accordingly 
resumed. 

It was at this period in his life that Chal- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 65 



mers made his first appearance as an author. 
Of this he writes in a letter to his brother 
James. 

" Dear James, — The dull and unvaried 
course of a clergyman's life offers little new 
or interesting to a resident in London, 
though I have attempted to enliven my 
situation a little by other employment. 
Among other things, I have lately come for- 
ward as a candidate for literary fame in the 
list of authorship. My performance is enti- 
tled, 4 Observation on a passage in Mr. Play- 
fair's Letters to the Lord Provost of Edin- 
burgh relative to the Mathematical Preten- 
sions of the Scottish Clergy.' " This is 
only of interest to the reader as the first 
effort of a writer whose works were after- 
wards so famous. 

His love of lecturing seems to have be- 
come a passion, for we hear of him, not 
only at St. Andrews, but drawing crowded 
houses in the towns near Kilmany to his 
lectures of chemistry; and, instead of lec- 
tures on personal godliness or even theolo- 
gy, we find him gathering his own parish 
5 



66 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



about him to see him perform experiments 
in chemistry. An anecdote is told of the 
effects produced upon two old women, who 
had been wondering listeners to their pas- 
tor's new way of teaching. 

" Among other experiments, the pow T ers 
of the bleaching liquids were exhibited. 
These two old wives meeting soon after, 
the following colloquy took place : { Our 
minister,' said the one, ' is naething short o' 
a warlock. He was teaching the folk to 
clean does, but without soap.' ' Ay, wo- 
man,' was the reply ; ' I wish he wud teach 
me to make parritch but meal.' " 

He used to ride about on a horse, carry- 
ing his chemical apparatus with him. Once, 
however, one of his bottles broke, and the 
whole burning contents poured down the 
horse's shoulder, leaving a discolored belt, 
which drew many smiles and comments as 
he rode leisurely along. 

Now and then we read of these lectures 
on chemistry being turned to a good, at 
least, a charitable end. Wishing to relieve 
a poor friend he applied to the minister of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



67 



the village in which the friend resided, for 
the use of his church. The minister, know- 
ing nothing of Mr. Chalmers but that he 
was more given to chemistry than theology, 
very properly refused. Immediately he 
sought out a room, set a high price on at- 
tendance, and commenced to full houses his 
lectures. At the close he had the pleasure 
of giving to the family not only enough to 
relieve them from present, but to supply fu- 
ture, wants for some months. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The generous, affectionate nature of Chal- 
mers' heart was never so satisfied as when 
able to do for others ; for this reason he 
kept the old manse at Kilmany filled with 
his relatives and friends, and many letters 
attest the interest and care with which he 
watched the progress of his numerous broth- 
ers. 



68 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS* 



It was through this avenue, that God 
was now about to make the first strong re- 
ligious impression upon his mind, and it 
came, as such events generally do, in the 
form of what seemed the deepest affliction, 
the one hardest to be borne. 

His brother George, the one for whose 
sake he had come some time since up to 
Liverpool in order to teach him navigation, 
sickened, and seemed fast approaching the 
grave. George was the pet lamb of the 
flock — the Benjamin, whose coat of many- 
colors was not woven by the parent alone, 
but by the peculiar fondness also of broth- 
ers and sisters. He was, like Thomas, 
generous, whole-hearted, and brave, had 
even as much affection and admiration at 
sea as at home, and had risen rapidly from 
one honor to another, until he became mas- 
ter of a cruising vessel, whose business it 
was to sail along the channel and the shore 
of France, in order to capture such of the 
enemy's ships as should fall into their hands, 
England being then at war with France. 
After a severe engagement with a French 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



69 



privateer, George, wearied and warm, lay 
down to sleep upon the deck, and during 
that hour of complete exhaustion, the seeds 
of consumption were fatally sown. Con- 
scious, almost from the very first, of the na- 
ture of the disease, he sought his home, 
thinking if any thing on earth had power 
to restore him, it would be his native air. 
Dividing his time between Anstruther and 
Kilmany, every thing that the unwearied 
care and attention of kind friends could do, 
was done to avert the disease ; but in vain ; 
it marched steadily and quietly on to its 
end. Thomas seems only to have been sep- 
arated from him when his duties rendered 
it necessary. Writing to his brother in 
October from Anstruther, he says : " Poor 
George is no better. His weakness, his 
languor, and perspiration seem to have been 
much increased since he left Kilmany. . . . 
As to himself, he has all the manly indiffer- 
ence of his profession, is as cheerful as his 
bodily sufferings will allow, and perfectly 
resigned, under the confident idea that his 
death is inevitable." 



70 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



In what a different strain are the words 
of his good old father, writing a few days 
after to this same son. 

" George is weaker than when I last wrote 
you. The doctors. I imagine, have no 
great hopes of his recovery, but the Physi- 
cian above all may otherwise appoint con- 
cerning him. I would desire to say, with 
your brother, His holy will be done. He 
seems to be resigned to live or die, as God 
may see meet. I pray, that, living or dying, 
he may be the Lord's. . . . He has nothing 
of peevishness about him, — a firm, steady res- 
ignation he possesses to a great degree." . . 
Again, in December: "I have no heart to 
write. He is still alive, but unable to help 
himself in any manner of way, but blessed 
be God, that gives him a sweet submission 
to his holy will, and a satisfying hope of 
his mercy in Christ." 

With active, earnest, energetic life, 
Thomas had already become very familiar, 
but he was now to learn a new lesson — 
the end of life — and that, too, of a life so 
dear to him. Forgetful of all his schemes 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 71 



of worldly ambition, we find him now a 
constant attendant by the side of his dying 
brother. The tables are turned. George is 
teaching to him those great and solemn 
truths, before which all connected with 
natural science seem so trivial. God in his 
mercy sent just such a death-bed as was 
most calculated to touch and instruct, and 
seemed in a singular and marked way to 
point out to Chalmers the very points 
wherein he had most erred. 

Without spirituality himself, he had rather 
despised the devotional books of those pious 
men who lived so near to God, that, like 
the inspired word, much that they wrote 
was hidden from the wise and prudent, to 
be revealed only to the childlike, the babes. 
Sometimes he had even dared, in the pride 
and strength of his intellectual manhood, to 
make these very saint-loved books subjects 
of pulpit invective. " Bending over the 
pulpit," says his biographer, " and putting 
on the books named a strong expression of 
dislike," he had said : " Many books are fa- 
vorites with you, which, I am sorry to say, 



72 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



are no favorites of mine. When you are 
reading Newton's Sermons, and Baxter's 
Saints' Rest, and Doddridge's Rise and 
Progress, where do Matthew and Mark, 
Luke and John, go to ? " 

Now a feeble voice, soon he knew to be 
hushed forever in death, called upon him to 
read to him one of those well-known New- 
ton's sermons, and he saw the fading eye 
light up with joy and rest and peace, as he 
slowly and falteringly read on. Expressions 
of satisfaction and renewed trust constant- 
ly interrupted him. Folded hands, and lips 
moving inaudibly in prayer, mingled with 
the soft devotional passages. O Newton ! 
despised and rejected by the strong young 
man, what an angel of comfort he was to the 
stricken, dying one, and all the time, while 
Thomas was sitting there, watching and 
waiting, with the contemned book clasped 
in his hand, it must have filled his heart 
with doubts and misgivings as to the correct- 
ness of his own formerly expressed opinions, 
and there can be little doubt, that, as he 
saw the weakness and helplessness of a 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 73 



child stealing over the young sailor, he felt 
sure that the u manly indifference of his pro- 
fession " was not all that sustained him 
now; nor, as he bent over him to catch 
those last precious words, could he so have 
interpreted that faltering, dying testimony: 
" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart 
in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy sal- 
vation." " Thy salvation," those words 
must have lingered forever in Chalmers' 
mind. 

A few months after the death of his 
brother, Mr. Chalmers made his first jour- 
ney of any length, going to London to 
spend a week or two with his brother 
James. During this visit a journal was 
kept, with comments upon all that he saw 
and heard. The minuteness of the descrip- 
tions show that he must have been a very 
close and accurate observer, not only of 
men and manners, but of the smallest 
things in the natural world, and in the 
world of art and literature. 

We find traces of his fondness for chem- 
istry in the interest with which he visited 



74 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the celebrated chemists in London, and his 
mention of preaching on the Sabbath does 
not allow us entirely to forget that he is a 
minister. Although possessing much local 
and literary interest, we must pass briefly 
over this journal, giving our readers only 
a short extract from a letter of his old 
friend, Mr. Shaw, with whom he was now 
travelling, in which is detailed some little 
of the spirit and temper of heart which his 
journey to London had given him. 

" On our way up the Tweed, I suggested 
the propriety of our calling on my friend 
Nicol of Traquair, whose manse was situated 
only about half a mile off from the road. 

" ' Well, sir,' was the reply, ' but it must 
be only for a minute or two, as I must get 
to Pennycook this night.' There, however, 
we spent the day most comfortably, and in 
the evening were so delighted .with the pi- 
ano, that we could not refrain dancing a 
few merry reels. At last Chalmers took 
hold of my arm and exclaimed, 4 It's out of 
the question, my getting home this week. 
You have a good horse, so you must just 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 75 



proceed to-morrow morning to Kilmany, 
and I will go back to Roberton.' To this 
proposal I readily agreed. Nicol was 
amazed, and seemed to think we were both 
getting deranged. 

" On awakening next morning and per- 
ceiving that it rained, I began to groan a 
little, when my friend pulled me out of bed 
and ordered me to set off with all conven- 
ient speed. Off I accordingly rode, and 
reached Kilmany about eight o'clock at 
night. Chalmers went from Nicol to Har- 
dies on the Friday ; we parted at Traquair ; 
and on Saturday to Roberton parish, where 
he wrote a poetical farewell to Teviotdale, 
and preached a brilliant sermon on 4 Look 
not on the wine when it is red.' (Psalms 
23 : 32.) Afterward, on his way home, he 
called at Abbotshall, and gave me a mi- 
nute and amusing account of all his pro- 
ceedings, concluding with high glee and 
emphasis, 4 This famous exploit will im- 
mortalize us, sir.' " 

He reached Kilmany in July, and, not- 
withstanding the rather frivolous spirit in- 



76 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



dicated by the " few merry reels and the 
sudden change of purpose," appears to 
have brought back with him soberer and 
more rational views of his ministerial work. 
In a letter written soon after to his brother 
James, he says : 

" I should have written you sooner, but 
the eternal sameness of the country suggests 
no subject which can at all interest you. I 
by no means dislike the country, however, 
and much indeed would I regret it, if my 
jaunt to London had inspired disgust with 
my situation. The truth is, I have come 
down to Scotland more of the country par- 
son than I ever was in my life before, quite 
devoted to the sober work of visiting and 
examining, scarcely ever without the limits 
of my parish, and not once at Anstruther or 
St. Andrews, since I returned from my ex- 
cursion." 

These simple pastoral duties, however, 
were not long, to claim the undivided inter- 
est of Chalmers. We find him next deeply 
engaged in political writing, in which he 
was much encouraged and aided by Wil- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 77 



bur, the celebrated painter, whose acquaint- 
ance and friendship he had made when in 
London. This book was successful ; two 
editions quickly sold out, and he was on 
the eve of taking his departure again for 
London, in order to superintend the bring- 
ing out another edition there, with more 
eclat, when his purposes were all frustrated 
by the death of a second in his father's 
family, his sister Barbara. Instead of going 
to London, he went to Anstruther, to pass 
once more with one he loved through "the 
dark valley of the shadow of death," and to 
see again, that the light of his Saviour's love 
could illume and make beautiful even the 
tomb. 

We find the following letter from him to 
James : 

" Dear James, — Barbara died last night, 
after a most severe and tedious illness. 
It was the near prospect of this event 
that restrained my departure for London, 
which would have taken place some time 
ago. At present, I have no decided inten- 
tion upon the subject, but will write you 
soon." 



78 LITE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



Some months after this event, he removed 
from the old manse at Kilmany, to spend 
the winter months at Woodsmuir, in a 
house from the windows of which he could 
obtain a beautiful prospect of the shipping 
at Dundee. Here he wrote literary articles 
and eloquent sermons, riding over to Kil- 
many five miles, often through snow and 
winter storm, to deliver them. He began 
to be known and noticed as a writer, and 
was applied to by the editor of the Edin- 
burgh Encyclopaedia to write different arti- 
cles for this work. The themes were gen- 
erally of a mathematical character; but af- 
ter his sister Barbara's death, we find him 
writing to ask leave to prepare one on 
Christianity. Religion had at last become 
to him a subject on which he wished to 
think soberly, at least to give it a place 
among so many others. Whether there 
were lingering in his mind some skeptical 
doubts which he wished to eradicate, 
whether he felt that he had not yet been 
sufficiently in earnest in defending vital 
truth, or whether he wished to erect a bul- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 79 



wark against which nothing could prevail, 
we cannot tell, but he went with his earnest 
zeal to his work, and we find this record of 
the effects of his study upon his preaching 
and character. " The sermons preached by 
him during that period sufficiently repre- 
sent what those views and impressions 
were, during the first six years of his min- 
istry. That single-minded simplicity of 
character, which had not even to struggle 
with any tendencies to guile, lent a truthful 
transparency to all his utterances from the 
pulpit, and made his public ministry a full 
and faithful transcript of all his opinions 
and feelings as to religion. He never in- 
culcated upon others what he did not fully 
and heartily believe himself, he never (as 
was too common in those days) kept back 
from his people any part of his own relig- 
ions creed ; nor did any fear of unpopular- 
ity restrain him from publicly and vehe- 
mently decrying that evangelism which he 
then nauseated and despised." 

After a statement of his creed, Dr. Hanna 
remarks : " We have to wait now but a few 



80 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



months to see this slight and superficial 
Christianity fairly and fully put upon trial, 
till we see it signally and utterly fail." 

And it seems as if Death was still to be 
the chosen instrument which was to bring 
the wanderer home, for while bewildered in 
this half mystical, half true religion, God 
again came near to him in the sudden re- 
moval of the uncle whose name he bore. 
Mr. Ballardie had become, as years brought 
afflictions and changes to them, nearer and 
nearer to the Chalmers family. Their inter- 
course was frequent and familiar, and their 
attachment strong. When he was nearly 
seventy years of age, without giving any 
signs of disease or feebleness, he was sud- 
denly taken away. Being one morning a 
little longer away from his family than was 
his wont, one of the members went in 
search of him, and found him kneeling in a 
chair in the attitude of prayer, but his spirit 
had fled. The intelligence of his death 
reached Chalmers while sick with a severe 
illness, which his medical attendant consid- 
ered too serious to allow of his being with 
nis relatives at the time of the funeral. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 81 

In a letter to his father on the occasion, 
he pays the following feeling tribute to his 
uncle's memory : " I cannot help feeling the 
very severe loss which our family has sus- 
tained in a man, whose attachment to every 
one of us, whose great kindness, great worth, 
and great integrity shall ever endear his 
memory to all his acquaintances." As 
Thomas bore his uncle's name, and he had 
no children, he bequeathed to him his house 
and furniture, and made him one of the 
trustees of his property, — probably the first 
property which Chalmers ever possessed. 

And now, in order to fix more deeply in 
Chalmers' mind the solemn lesson of mor- 
tality which had been given to remind 
him that he should make preparation for 
another life, the one great object of this, 
God sent upon Chalmers a long and severe 
illness. For four months he was confined 
to his room, for six he could not preach, and 
a w T hole year rolled by without his being 
able to discharge the duties of his parish. 
In those long hours of sadness and suffer- 
ing, who shall know what God was doing 
6 



82 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



for that stricken heart ? how he was fitting 
him for the work he had yet in store for him ? 
A gentleman who visited him during this 
sickness writes of him : " I certainly never 
saw a person so much altered in the same 
space of time, being then greatly attenu- 
ated, while formerly he was corpulent. He 
was scarcely able to walk across the room. 
It was a year or two before he recovered, 
and during that period he had much the 
appearance of an old man, of one who would 
never be able again for much exertion." 

At this same time two of his sisters sick- 
ened, and the dread disease which had 
already made such inroads into their fam- 
ily seemed threatening to sweep them all 
away. 

Mr. Chalmers did not doubt that he was 
about to die, and so face to face with death 
he first began to learn, in deed and in truth, 
the " mysteries of true godliness." Writing 
to a friend, he says : " My confinement has 
fixed upon my heart a very strong impres- 
sion of the insignificance of time, an im- 
pression which, I trust, will not abandon 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



83 



me, though I again reach the heyday of 
health and vigor. This should be the first 
step to another impression, still more salu- 
tary, — the magnitude of eternity. Strip 
human life of its connection with a higher 
sense of existence, and it is the illusion of 
an instant, an unmeaning farce, a series of 
visions and projects, and convulsive efforts, 
which terminate in nothing. I have been 
reading fc Pascal's Thoughts on Religion.' 
You know his history. A man of the rich- 
est endowments, and whose youth was sig- 
nalized by his profound and original specu- 
lations in mathematical science, but who 
could stop short in the brilliant career of 
discovery, who could resign all the splendors 
of literary reputation, who could renounce 
without a sigh all the distinctions which 
are conferred upon genius, and resolve to 
devote every talent and every hour to the 
defence and illustration of the gospel. This, 
my dear sir, is superior to all Greek and to 
all Roman fame." 

And so, at last, after years of longing 
and striving, the young, ambitious scholar 



84 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



had become convinced, that to be devoted 
to the interest of religion was greater than 
any earthly fame. Reading one of those 
despised religious books, he had come to 
see all the fame and literary acquirements 
of genius as nothing in comparison with 
that heroism which could rise above the 
seen and temporal to things unseen and 
eternal. 

Chalmers was eminently an honest man. 
Never wishing to deceive others, he escaped 
that almost invariable result, self-deception ; 
and now, viewing his past life in the light 
of eternity, devoted as it externally might 
have been to the service of God, he found 
it all a hollow mockery, and, with infinite 
gratitude for the Divine Love which had 
borne with his unprofitable services, he 
earnestly sought forgiveness, and set him- 
self resolutely about seeking that other, 
true Christian life, which alone was worthy 
of his immortal nature. Says his biogra- 
pher, in writing of this period : 

" Surrounded by such a crowd of wit- 
nesses " (the good men who have lived 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 85 



before him), " a new ambition, stronger and 
more absorbing than that which had thirst- 
ed so eagerly for literary fame, fired Mr. 
Chalmers' breast. Every thought of his 
heart, every word of his lip, every action of 
his life, he would henceforth strive to regu- 
late under a high, presiding sense of his 
responsibility to God ; his whole life he 
would turn into a preparation for eternity." 

But, alas for the ardent and, as yet, self- 
regulating young man ! " Over the central 
doctrine of Christianity," continues his biog- 
rapher, "which tells of the sinner's free jus- 
tication before God through the merits of his 
Son, there hung an obscuring mist ; there 
was a flaw in the motives which prompted 
the struggle in which Mr. Chalmers so 
devotedly engaged ; there was a misconcep- 
tion of the object which it was possible by 
such a struggle to realize. More than a 
year of fruitless toil, hard to be described, 
ere the true ground of a sinner's acceptance 
with God was reached, and the true princi- 
ple of all acceptable obedience was implant- 
ed in his heart." 



86 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



Chalmers had now reached his thirtieth 
year. The precious time of his early man- 
hood was fast passing, and God's provi- 
dence had done for him all it had thought 
best. He now must wait to feel in deep 
humility the want of that aid which comes 
alone from the Spirit's influence over the 
weak human heart. 



CHAPTER VII. 

We have quite a full journal kept during 
this period, but our limits will only allow us 
to glean here and there a sentence, descrip- 
tive of his daily life, and his spiritual 
progress. 

" March 17, 1810. I have this day com- 
pleted my thirtieth year, and upon a review 
of the last fifteen years of my life, I am 
obliged to acknowledge that at least two 
thirds of my time has been uselessly or idly 
spent. For by far the greater part of my 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 87 



time, too, there has been a total estrange- 
ment of my mind from religious principle ; 
and my whole conduct has been disturbed 
by the rambling impulse of the moment, 
without any reference to that eternity which 
should be the end and the motive of all our 
actions. 

" March 25. I have always had a strong 
tendency to communicate my feelings, but 
there is often a great deal of vanity at the 
bottom of it. An excellent rule is to sus- 
pect the propriety of every communication 
where the personal feelings or circumstan- 
ces of the speaker form a part of the 
subject." 

Perpetually we find him mourning over 
the quickness and irritability of his temper. 

He writes, April 2 : " Erred in the evening 
after I got home, by delivering myself up too 
openly to my feelings of indignation against 
. I must combine temper with exer- 
tion upon this subject; abstain as much as 
possible from all irritation, but be steady 
and determined. I got into a violent 
passion with Sandy (his brother) in the 



88 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



morning ; and after I had reasoned myself 
into a thorough impression of its crim- 
inality, repeated the same with high aggra- 
vations in the afternoon. . . . Gracious 
heaven ! look down with pity on the errors 
of a poor and benighted wanderer. 

" April 16. Erred egregiously this even- 
ing in my indignation against Mrs. , 

and before my aunt too, who esteems her. 
. . . Oh, how far short both of the elevation 
and the charity of Christian principles to 
be so much disturbed by the little injuries 
which are offered to our pride ! 

" May 16. There is one thing for which I 
implore the assistance of Heaven. I feel 
symptoms of impatience with my kind and 
venerable father. Oh! let my manner to 
him be calculated to soothe him, and make 
him happy." 

His affection and tenderness toward his 
parents may be gathered from the few 
extracts which follow. 

u Sandy has fallen ill to-day, and threatens 
fever. Now is the time for reflecting on 
the evils of harshness and severity and 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 89 



intemperate passion. . . . Sandy continues 
under fever, and I am all tenderness and 
anxiety. . . . Sandy is better to-day, and I 
here record my gratitude to heaven, and 
pray that it may be perpetual. . . . Sandy 
is greatly better in his general health, but 
the pain in his side still distresses me. . . . 
Sandy better to-day, and the doctor repre- 
sents his complaints as trifling. Let my 
gratitude be indelible. . . . Sandy com- 
plains of a recurrence of pain in his breast, 
and I am all anxiety. 

" May 11. Found Lucy in an alarming 
way. . . . Sandy has made no progress to- 
day, and poor Lucy's illness will, I fear, 
prove fatal. 

" June 6. a good deal better this day, 

yet I feel myself so enfeebled by the weight 
of anxiety about her, as to be incapable of 
going through my regular exercises." 

With regard to his religious condition, 
we select from amid a great variety the few 
following extracts. 

" Let me associate religion with the 
sound of every hour, and I pray that this 



90 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



may be a help to its gaining an habitual 
influence over my practice and sentiments." 
a O God! may I prove thy religion as the 
only sure defence against the griefs and 
dangers of this earthly pilgrimage." " O 
God ! may I feel the authority of thy Law." 
" I pray God that I may contract no taint 
from my intercourse with the world." 

The strictness of his self-examination, 
the honest, manly way in which he con- 
stantly dealt with himself, is shown by 
these extracts, and tell more of the strife 
which was now going on within him, than 
those that are simply religious. 

" May I not think that the record of my 
faults is any atonement for them, but in the 
strength of the Christian faith, may I be 
vigilant and determined. ... I am happy 
that I overcame the unmanly delicacy 
which would have influenced me in other 
days. I read a sermon to the young ladies 
and had prayers in the evening. ... I have 
less of the vanity of display, but I have still 
a strong remainder of the worldly princi- 
ple. . . . Let me never fish for compli- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 91 



ments, or try, in a disguised manner, to turn 
the conversation to the subject. . . . Ob- 
truded my botany too much upon them.' 7 

During this transition period of his life, 
we find but very few notices, either of his 
pulpit exercises or his connection with his 
people. 

" I preached this Sunday, after a retire- 
ment of thirty-one weeks from all public 
duty, and have not felt myself the worse 
for it. I had to make an effort in the way 
of keeping myself from being overpowered. 
Preached twice to-day. O God! may I 
love thy Sabbaths, and cultivate the peace 
and piety of thy gospel. 

" In my pulpit exhibitions I am perhaps 
too anxious to communicate a full im- 
pression of what I say, and give an ardor 
and a rapidity to my utterance which 
defeats the purpose. I should confide a 
little more in the sympathy and intelligence 
of my hearers, and, by a more distinct and 
at the same time less fatiguing manner of 
enunciation, I both save myself, and prob- 
ably come nearer to the object of my 
anxiety." 



92 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



No special mention of the people can be 
found in this part of his journal. We are 
left to infer, therefore, that, beside the fulfil- 
ment of his parochial duties in a strict 
manner, he had little or no intercourse with 
them. The death of his sister Lucy, of 
whose failing strength we have read no- 
tices in his journal, took place about this 
time ; and while remaining after this event 
with his parents at Anstruther, his mind 
and heart were turned in a new way to the 
subject of religion. He was much interest- 
ed in reading Wilberforce's Practical View. 
Of this book he writes to his brother: 

" I had Wilberforce's View put into my 
hands, and as I got on reading it, felt my- 
self on the eve of great revolution in all my 
opinions about Christianity." Says his 
biographer : " The felt insecurities of his 
position he had been in vain endeavoring 
to strengthen, by mixing up the merits of 
Christ with the sincerity of his repentance, 
and the pains-taking of his obedience, to 
form together the ingredient of his hope and 
security before God, but the conviction was 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 93 



now wrought in him that he had been at- 
tempting an impossibility, that he had been 
trying to compound elements which would 
not amalgamate, that it must be wholly on 
his own merits, or on Christ's merits wholly, 
that he must lean. Out of their struggle, 
Luther and Dr. Chalmers alike found their 
exit by casting themselves into the bosom 
of their Saviour, and giving themselves up 
to all the duties of life, spiritual and social, 
as those who had been freely and fully 
reconciled unto God through Jesus Christ 
their Lord." 

Writing, in after years, of the effect of his 
ministry upon the Kilmany people pre- 
vious to this time, Chalmers says : " For a 
greater part of the time I could expatiate 
upon the meanness of dishonesty or the 
villany of falsehood, or the despicable arts 
of calumny; in a word, upon all those de- 
formities of character which awaken the 
natural indignation of the human heart 
against the pests and disturbers of human 
society. . . . But the most interesting part 
is, that during the whole period in which I 



94 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



made no attempt against the natural en- 
mity of the mind to God; while I was 
inattentive to the way in which this en- 
mity was dissolved, even by the free oiler 
on the one hand, and the believing accept- 
ance on the other, of the gospel salvation ; 
while Christ, through whose blood the 
sinner, who by nature stands afar off, is 
brought near to the heavenly Lawgiver 
whom he has offended, was scarcely ever 
spoken of, or spoken of in such a way as 
stripped him of all the importance of his char- 
acter and his offices ; even at this time, I cer- 
tainly did press the reformations of honor 
and truth and integrity among my people, 
but I never once heard of any such reforma- 
tions being effected among them. . . . 

" I am not sensible that all the vehemence 
with which 1 urged the virtues and the 
proprieties of social life, had the weight of 
a feather on the moral habits of my pa- 
rishioners. ... It was not till the free offer 
of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus 
Christ was urged upon their acceptance, 
and the Holy Spirit given through the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 95 



channel of Christ's mediatorship to all who 
ask him, was set before them as the un- 
ceasing object of their dependence and 
prayers ; in one word, it was not till the 
contemplations of my people were turned to 
these great and essential elements in the 
business of a soul providing for its interest 
with God and the concerns of eternity, that 
I even heard of any of those subordinate 
reformations which I aforetime made the 
earnest and zealous, but I am afraid at the 
same time the ultimate object of my earlier 

ministrations You have at least 

taught me that to preach Christ is the only 
effective way of preaching morality in all 
its branches." 

Speaking of his personal intercourse and. 
his influence upon his people during this 
period, his biographer writes : " Parochial 
duty pressed lightly upon Mr. Chalmers dur- 
ing the first seven years of his ministry at 
Kilmany." If he expended as much effort 
upon the religious improvement of his 
people as any minister within the bounds 
of his presbytery ; " if he could triumphantly 



96 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



challenge his brethren to prove" that he 
had been outstripped by any of his pre- 
decessors in the regularity of his ministe- 
rial attentions, the standard to which he 
thus appealed must have been miserably 
low. The sick and the dying among his 
parishioners had not indeed been neglected 
during those earlier years. Kindly inqui- 
ries were made, tender sympathies were 
shown, and needful aid was tendered, but 
no solicitude was manifested as to their 
religious condition, no reference, in visiting 
them, to their state and prospects for eter- 
nity; and it was only when specially 
requested to do so that he engaged in 
prayer. Two or three weeks were annu- 
ally devoted to a visitation of his parish, 
so rapidly conducted that he scarcely did 
more than hurriedly enter a dwelling, to 
summon the inmates to a short address 
given in some neighboring apartment, and 
confined generally to one or other of the 
mere ordinary moralities of domestic life. 
With the general body of his parishioners 
he had little intercourse. They might meet 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 97 



him occasionally on the road and receive 
the kindliest notice, but the smile of friendly 
recognition broke over a countenance of 
dreamy abstraction, and when the quickly 
made but cordial salutation was over and 
he had gone, his wondering parishioners 
would gaze after him as a man addicted to 
strange and, in the eyes of many of them, 
very questionable pursuits. Comparatively 
little time or care was bestowed upon his 
pulpit preparations." 

From such a ministry as this, the people 
of Kilmany were now to be released. 
Waking suddenly as from a conscious 
sleep, Mr. Chalmers had a distinct and 
vivid insight into the faults and errors of 
his life, and with characteristic energy he 
sat himself at once to bring about a very 
different state of things. Of this we have 
full entries in his journal, but shall only be 
able to make a few extracts. 

" Now that I have got well let me 
devote a great part of my time to my par- 
ish. Called on sick people in the village. 
I am a good deal weaned from the ardor 
7 



98 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



for scientific pursuits, and let me direct my 
undivided attention to theology. ... I am 
advancing in my conceptions of the mighty 
importance of my office, and that every 
minute should be devoted to its labors. . . . 

God! may I devote my entire soul to 
the good work ! May I give my most 
strenuous and unceasing efforts to the great 
work of preparing a people for eternity. 
The people attentive. ... I examined 
about twenty -four people ; I should leave 
the answers more to themselves, and must 
study to construct my questions accordingly. 

1 hope and pray that much good may be 
done in this way. Examined the west end 
of the village in church, and a few young 
people in my own house in the evening. 
Find that much may be done in this way, 
and that there is much to do. I should 
not engage with more than ten or twelve 
at a time to do them justice. Alexander 
Paterson, who called on me yesterday, 
called on to-night also. He tells me that 
he has obtained more comfort, and gives 
me cheering accounts of the growth of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 99 



seriousness among his acquaintances. Read 
three tracts for distribution, and had Robert 
Edis over to spend an hour and sup with 
me. Prayed for the people, individually 
for some, and generally for all descriptions 
of them. A. Paterson called and gave me 
agreeable accounts of the growth of se- 
riousness in my parish. Visited at Dalgell 
Lodge. They are in great affliction for 
the death of a child. I prayed with them. 

God ! make me wise and faithful in 
my management of these cases. Miss 

under religious concern. O my God ! 

send her help from thy sanctuary ; give me 
wisdom for these cases. 

" Poor Mr. Bouthon I think is dying. 

1 saw him and prayed, after a good deal of 
false delicacy. Visited at . The chil- 
dren present. This I think highly proper, 
and let me study a suitable and impressive 
address to them in all time coming. Vis- 
ited a young man in consumption ; the call 
not very pleasant, but that is of no conse- 
quence. O my God! direct me how to 
do him good. 



100 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



" Examined with more enlargement and 
seriousness. I feel as if there was an 
intelligence and good spirit among the 
people. O God ! satisfy me with success ; 
bat I commit all to thee." 

Not satisfied with visiting, examination, 
and preaching, he at last instituted a school 
at his own house on Saturday, for the 
instruction of his young people. At first 
this was only to meet once a month, but 
after a short time, it met weekly at the 
manse. 

Of this class, three years after his re- 
moval from Kilmany, he says : " I met with 
more satisfying evidence of good done by 
a school which I taught when at Kilmany, 
than by all that I ever did there beside." 

But during this period he was also grow- 
ing in strength and popularity as a preacher. 
For this quiet people, in the little village of 
Kilmany, was written a series of discourses, 
which in after years were among the most 
admired of all his printed works. We 
must now, however, stop for a short time 
in our pleasant records of the change which 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 101 



has come over his religious sentiments and 
public ministration, to take a view of him 
at home — a glimpse of the man in the 
manse at Kilmany. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

On his first going to Kilmany, we no- 
ticed the fact that the old house was then 
in an almost ruinous condition, and that 
Chalmers was obliged to make a home for 
himself in a village only a few miles dis- 
tant ; but in accordance with his wishes a 
new manse was immediately commenced, 
and we find this entry in his journal, dated 
April 19, 1810 : " I walked to Kilmany and 
viewed the progress of affairs at the manse 
and glebe. . . . Walked to Kilmany and 
gave directions about my gas tubes." 

Nov. 23. « Rode from St. Andrews to 
Cupar, and in the union coach to Kilmany, 
when I entered my new manse for the first 



102 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



time. This may be considered an epoch 
in my history, and I pray God that from 
this epoch I may date new vigor to my 
principles, greater consistency in my con- 
duct, more effort and more determination 
in my purposes of obedience." 

This was truly an epoch in his life, for 
now for the first time commenced that 
series of home care and duties, which are 
the surest way of bringing home affections. 
We have a picture of the minister leaving 
his study, and bringing his mathematics 
into practical use in measuring grass-plots, 
laying out flower-beds in " conic sections, all 
accurately laid down, so that on either side 
of the circle or ellipse, a parabolic or hy- 
perbolic bed flourished conspicuous with its 
allotted genera and species." Botany he 
loved, not only for its science, but most 
for the beauty of the flowers, and we have 
no doubt the arrangement was a great 
pleasure as well as the blossoms. 

He brought from his careful paternal 
home his sisters to live with and keep 
house for him; yet we find entries in his 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 103 



journal which show that among his other 
cares, domestic ones were not forgotten. 
" Spent the day in experimenting on the 
cutting of my hedge for fuel. This was 
trifling with a witness. . . . Planted trees, 
and measured out my grass-plot." The 
following humorous story illustrates the 
same point. At the time coffee began to 
be introduced, Chalmers invented for home 
consumption an infusion of burned^rye. 
Being fond of it himself, he used to urge it 
upon his guests, affirming that it was equal 
to the best Mocha. An old college friend 
of his, Mr. Duncan, being with him at 
Kilmany, he gave him the beverage and 
stoutly contested with him its equality with 
Mocha. Mr. Chalmers said on his next 
visit to the Dundean, he would bring some 
of it with him, and the experiment should 
be fairly tried. " The time for the trial soon 
arrived. Mr. Chalmers appeared in Dun- 
dean, bringing with him a quantity of rye 
coffee, as he called it, of his best manu- 
facture. The trial between it and its rival 
w T as made in Dr. Ramsay's own house, to 



104 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



whose sister the performance of the impor- 
tant experiment had been intrusted. It- 
was agreed that a select company of con- 
noisseurs should assemble ; that Miss Ram- 
say should furnish each, first with a cup 
of her best Mocha, and then, with a cup of 
the ' genuine Kilmany ; ' that each guest 
should announce his opinion, and that by a 
verdict of the majority, the respective mer- 
its Aould be decided. In the mean time, 
however, Miss Ramsay received certain 
private instructions upon which she acted. 
In due time the company assembled. The 
coffee, being handed around, met with gen- 
eral approbation. The second cup was next 
presented ; by one after another an adverse 
verdict was pronounced, till it came at last 
to Mr. Duncan, who emphatically exclaimed, 
' Much inferior, very much inferior.' Mr. 
Chalmers' bursts of laughter were very 
merry as he replied : ' It's your own Mocha 
coffee, the second cup is. just the same 
article as the first.' " 

Lively and eminently social in his dis- 
position, nothing delighted Mr. Chalmers 



LIPE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 105 



more than to have the manse at Kilmany 
constantly filled with guests. Devoted while 
in his study to abstruse themes, or writing 
which required severe thought, he seems 
early to have made the discovery that 
complete relaxation was needed when the 
hours for study were past. His journal 
is full of the notices of guests who came 
bidden or unbidden to his table. 

" My friends from Anstruther arrived in 
a chaise to dinner. Miss Mary Wood 
called and spent the day with us. Messrs. 
Thomas and David Duncan, and Dr. Ram- 
say, came and dined with us. . . . After 
tea, Professor Leslie called, and spent the 
night with me. The French gentleman 
and Mr. Brown of Galway dined. Mr. 
Melvil of Newton joined us at tea. . . . 
Let me also be less profuse in my in- 
vitations to company. We had twenty- 
two at dinner ; let me rather bestow my 
attention upon my parishioners another 
time." 

Mr. Chalmers was very fond of racy 
anecdote, and almost always had one to 



106 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



illustrate a subject and give life and vi- 
vacity to a dinner-party like that men- 
tioned above. Among these, was the fol- 
lowing, which he told often to show the 
supremacy of the imagination over the 
senses. 

" A party of ministers had met at the 
manse of his great uncle, Dr. Chalmers 
of Kilconquhar, where a number of them 
were to remain all night; among the rest, 
Mr. Gray, against whom some slight pique, 
" on account of a real or assumed literary 
superiority, was entertained. The question 
as to the relative power of the imagination 
and senses was raised, and the argument 
rose high. Mr. Gray alone taking side of 
the senses, and all the others the side of the 
imagination. The combatants parted for 
the night ; Mr. Gray by retiring first giving 
his adversaries the opportunity of con- 
cocting the trick by which they made his 
own act contradict his argument. It was 
the custom at that time to wear wigs, 
which were given to a servant at night to 
be powdered for the next day. When 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 107 



Mr. Gray with his freshly-powdered wig 
came down to the breakfast room, he found 
it unoccupied. It was not long till one of 
the brethren joined him, who, on approach- 
ing, gave very distinct, but not very agree- 
able, indications that a most offensive odor 
was issuing from the w T ig. Trying his 
own senses, Mr. Gray could detect nothing 
amiss, and laughed at his friend for his 
folly. Now, however, a second friend came 
in, who declared immediately on entering, 
that there was a very strong smell of brim- 
stone in the room, and traced it at once 
and unhesitatingly to the wig. The laugh 
subsided ; but still, after a second trial, 
Mr. Gray could find nothing amiss. But 
a third friend came in, and a fourth, and a 
fifth, all fixing the alleged offence upon the 
wig, till his own senses, overcome at last, 
and the victory given to his adversaries. 
Mr. Gray flung the harmless wig away, 
exclaiming, ' Why, the fellow has put brim- 
stone on my wig. ? " 

The quiet and security of the manse at 
Kilmany were about now to be broken by 



I 



108 LITE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the footsteps of an invader, who breaks up, 
as well as makes, many pleasant homes. 
Jane, the favorite sister of Mr. Chalmers, 
was about to be married. Writing in the 
commencement of this summer, when this 
same sister had gone away to make a short 
visit, he says : " The experience of the last 
week convinces me, that solitude at home 
is my element, and supplies a strong argu- 
ment against matrimony. In the inde- 
pendence of my resources, in the pleas- 
urable trains of reflection which nothing 
occurred to interrupt, in the call to exer- 
tion to fill up the intervals of my time, and 
in my entire exemption from all that irk- 
someness and corrosion to which the offen- 
sive peculiarities of others are too apt to 
expose me, I believe quietude and solitude 
at home would add much to my usefulness 
as a public character." He had also much 
confidence in himself as a domestic man- 
ager and housekeeper, and on Jane's leav- 
ing him to go for some time previous to 
her marriage to Anstruther, he refused to 
have any other arrangement made for him, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 109 



and gave occasion very soon to many 
droll stories, which were the result of his 
experiment. Among them the following 
is quite amusing. Two gentlemen came 
in unexpectedly to dine with him. " Re- 
tiring shortly after they made their ap- 
pearance, in order to hold a private con- 
sultation as to the important article of 
dinner, he found to his dismay that there 
was nothing in the house but two separate 
parcels of salt fish. Having given particu- 
lar directions that a portion of each should 
be boiled apart from the other, he joined his 
friends, and went out to enjoy the brilliant 
day and the pleasant sight of the hunting 
field. They returned to the manse with 
racy appetites. The dinner was served, 
two large and most promising covered 
dishes flourishing at the head and foot of 
the table. ' And now, gentlemen,' said the 
host as the covers were removed, 4 you have 
variety to choose from ; that is the hard 
fish from St. Andrews, and this, a hard fish 
from Dundee. ' " 

On January 15th, we find this entry in 



110 LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the journal : " Married my dear Jane to 
Mr. Morton. . . . Had a numerous mar- 
riage party to dinner, and kept it up with 
music and dancing to between one and two 
in the morning." We are not unprepared 
from the mention of the dancing, for the 
clause which follows. " Was in a divided 
state about family worship in the former 
part of the day, and had it not in the even- 
ing. I took a hurried adieu of my dear 
Jane, whose departure from Kilmany threw 
me into repeated fits of tenderness." 

After the sample we have had of his 
housekeeping, we are not at all surprised 
when Jane was fairly gone, to read the 
following letter to her, written some six 
months after her own marriage. 

" My dear Jane, you know that when you 
left Edinburgh, I was engaged with a pro- 
cess before the court of Teinds " (asking for 
an increase of salary), " and the issue of that 
process was not just as favorable as I could 
have wished ; since that period, I have been 
carrying on another process before another 
court and after the delay of some vexatious 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



111 



forms, and some tedious and unlooked for 
evasions, I have the joy to announce to you 
that the issue has been in the highest de- 
gree triumphant." After a long account of 
the forms and delays of the court, he ends 
with — "I ken, Jane, you always thought 
me an ill-pratted (mischievous) child, but 
I can assure you that of all the pratts I 
ever played, none was ever carried on or 
ever ended more gracefully. I would like 
to know what you make of the above com- 
munication, and what you think of it. I 
shall only say that it has rejoiced my friends ; 
that it has revived the heart of my old and 
venerated father ; that Mr. Manson threatens 
a long screed of poetry on the subject; that 
it has brought up my aunt to Kilmany, 
where she has been for days exercising her 
peculiar talent for redding up ; and lastly, 
that it has made my mother quite eloquent 
on her favorite subject of napery inven- 
tories and dredge-boxes." 

We shall let Mr. Chalmers tell his own 
story, not so much as interrupting him with 
a single observation. 



112 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



July 3d. " Rode before breakfast to Star- 
bank and got acquainted with Captain 
Pratt, who expresses his own approbation 
and that of other friends." 

In the following letter to his sister, he 
gives the particulars of his engagement and 
marriage. " You know that their uncle Mr. 
Simson's death left the ladies no other alter- 
native than going to England to live with 
their father, Captain Pratt, stationed near 

Harwich Opportunities which I 

felt to be resistless occurred, and I obtained 
a final and favorable deliverance on Friday 
the 26th of June. In the mean time, 
Captain Pratt arrives in Scotland to take 
up his two daughters. Every thing was 
previously arranged for their departure, and 
you may easily conceive how the change of 
place was a fine subject for the gossips and 
rather an awkward and difficult matter of 
explanation for the young ladies. Captain 
Pratt and I met at Starbank on Friday, the 
third of July. Plain, frank, and gentle- 
manly, he stated his own high satisfaction 
with the arrangement, and that of the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 113 



nearest friends. On Monday the 13th, I 
took the ladies to Edinburgh by the way of 
Burntisland, where lives Mr. Young, mar- 
ried to an aunt of the young ladies, of a 
most respectable family, and, what is better 
than all, he keeps up family worship in its 
pure and evangelical form. . . . My great 
anxiety was, that our marriage should be 
as private as possible, and for this purpose, 
my aunt left me after completing the prep- 
arations. The event took place before 
dinner at Starbank. Dr. Greenlaw was the 
clergyman, and in his ninetieth year. He 
made a most laughable mistake, which 
converted a business which is often ac- 
companied with tears into a perfect frolic. 
It made me burst out, and set all the ladies 
a tittering. In laying the vows on Grace, 
what he required of her was, that she should 
be a loving and affectionate husband, to 
which she courtesied. Sandy left us about 
half an hour before our departure to be in 
readiness to receive us at Kilmany. The 
whole of our party consisted of Grace, her 
sister, and myself. Sandy broke the bread, 
8 



114 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMEKS. 



presented the trays, and had supper all 
ready for a small party of four, and I think 
that I have managed the matter most phi- 
losophically, when, instead of the fuss and 
noise of company, and the parade of a 
fashionable jaunt, I have got her translated 
at the very outset of our connection into all 
the quietness and security of domestic life. 
. . . It gives me the greatest pleasure to 
inform you that in my new connection, I 
have found a coadjutor who holds up her 
face for all the proprieties of a clergyman's 
family, and even pleads for their extension 
beyond what I had originally proposed. 
We have now family worship twice a day, 
and though you are the only being on 
earth to whom I would unveil the most 
secret arrangements of our family, I cannot 
resist the pleasure of telling you, because I 
know that it will give you the truest pleas- 
ure to understand that in those still more 
private and united acts of devotion which 
are so beautifully described in the i Cotter's 
Saturday Night,' I feel a comfort, an ele- 
vation, and a peace, of which I was never 
before conscious." 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 115 



" Aug. 12th. Peace, harmony, and affec- 
tion reign in my abode. . . . Walked with 
my dear Grace to the top of Forest Hill. 
, . . She supports me in all the forms of 
devotion." In a later letter to his sister he 
says: " I have now had three months' experi- 
ence of matrimony, and as I know you will be 
anxious for my comfort, 1 can tell you that 
all my apprehension founded on discrep- 
ancies of temper, or want of congeniality 
between me and the partner of my fate, 
have turned out to be so many bugbears; 
that my affection is every day receiving 
new accessions to its strength and steadi- 
ness ; that I meet with nothing but the most 
delighted concurrence ; and, what you must 
know to be of particular importance to me, 
that she interests herself in the success of 
my professional exertions, that I am getting 
nearer to the state of her soul by intimate 
and close conversation on the greatest of 
all concerns." 



116 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

In Mr. Chalmers' journal bearing date 
September 29th, we find the following 
entry : " I finished this day my perusal of 
the New Testament by daily chapters, in 
which my object was to commit striking 
passages to memory. I mean to begin its 
perusal anew, in which this object shall be 
revised, and the object of fixing upon one 
sentiment in the chapter for habitual and 
recurring contemplation be revived." This 
is the first very definite mention of the 
Bible as a book of study which we find in 
his journal, and it may be supposed to be 
one of the most natural and immediate 
fruits of his conversion. About the same 
time, he writes as follows to his brother 
Patrick : " I look upon Baxter and Dod- 
dridge, as two most impressive writers. . . . 
But, after all, the Bible should be the daily 
exercise of those who have decidedly em- 
barked in this great business, and if read 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 117 



with the earnest sense and feeling of its 
being God's message, if perused with the 
same awe and veneration and confidence 
as if the words were actually coming out 
of his mouth ; if, while you read, you read 
with the desire and the prayer that it might 
be with understanding and profit, you are 
in a far more direct road to becoming wise 
unto salvation than any other that can 
possibly be recommended to you. There 
is no subject upon which people are read- 
ier to form rash opinions than religion. 
The Bible is the best corrective for them. 
And to this Bible, as an humble, loving 
student, Mr. Chalmers had at last come. 
With his usual thoroughness and energy, 
he left no means of gaining a true knowl- 
edge of its meaning unemployed. In 
order to come accurately to this, he re- 
commenced the study of Greek and He- 
brew, and we find, throughout his future 
journal, frequent mention made of his deep 
interest and continual progress in these 
studies. Consulting an old friend with 
regard to the books most needed as aids, 



118 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



he expressed his determination to devote 
three years to the study of the New Testa- 
ment in the original language. An anec- 
dote related by a neighbor, Mr. John Bou- 
thron, will illustrate how rigidly he adhered 
to his determination. He was in the habit 
of visiting Mr. Chalmers familiarly in his 
home, and he relates that coming one day 
before his conversion to see him, he said to 
him, 

" I find you aye busy, sir, with one thing 
or another ; but come when I may, I never 
find you at your studies for the Sabbath." 

" Oh, an hour or two on the Saturday 
evening is quite enough for that," was the 
minister's answer. But now when Mr. 
Bouthron entered the manse he found 
Mr. Chalmers almost always deeply en- 
gaged with the Bible. Noticing the change 
he said, " I never come in now, sir, but I 
find you aye at your Bible." 

" All too little, John, all too little ! " was 
the ready reply. 

With his heart thus warm and full with 
the love of the Bible, it happened well both 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



119 



for Mr. Chalmers and the world, that just 
at this time, the circumstances of the 
Bible Society arrested his attention, and 
riveted his interest. 

This was the first of those great Chris- 
tian enterprises to which his affection was 
given, and following it with all the ardor 
of a first love, that deep, active philan- 
thropy, which was destined to be so mighty 
an engine in doing good, was first awa- 
kened. The Bible Society rose in his esti- 
mation as the most magnificent scheme 
that was ever instituted for bettering the 
moral condition of mankind. He im- 
mediately began to use the influence of 
his pen, and his personal appearance and 
speeches at all their meetings, in behalf of 
the Bible Society, and turning naturally 
to where his influence would be the most 
immediate, he instituted a society among 
his own parish at Kilmany. 

The beginning of this Association is 
interesting, in contrast with the manner 
in which such societies are conducted now. 
The subscribers were strictly limited to a 



120 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



penny a week, in order that the poor, as 
well as the rich, might have the pleasure of 
giving, in Mr. Chalmers' own words, to 
them, " and to encourage you still more to 
the support of the good cause, though your 
individual offering be small the number 
among you is great, and the accumula- 
tion of your littles will form into a mightier 
sum than all the united gifts that the rich 
have yet thrown into the treasury." Not a 
page of the journal now, but contains some 
such notices as the following : " Read more 
than the New Testament in English, and 
the Greek to the end of Acts, as also a 
Greek grammar. At family worship, read 
Isaiah, Psalms, Job, and Proverbs. . . . 
Wrote for the Bible Society till half past 
eleven. . . . Translated a chapter in the 
Greek New Testament. . . . Had a most 
agreeable letter from Mr. Gillespie, relative 
to the Bible Society. ... I wrote again for 
the Bible Society. Met with forty clergy 
on the subject of the Bible Society." Things 
went on harmoniously. He recounts with 
much pleasure the formation of parish 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 121 



societies, which shall be employed as aids 
to the large parent societies, summing up 
the amount of the penny subscriptions with 
the following remark : " If the same pro- 
portion were followed all over the county, 
it would yield a revenue of three thousand 
pounds (about fifteen thousand dollars) 
from the single district of Fife, a sum as 
great as all Scotland has as yet furnished." 

But this new found interest in the Bible 
Society was destined to go hand in hand 
with other though similar movements. 

The origin of the India missionary en- 
terprise in England is probably known to 
most of our readers as having resulted from 
the piety and efforts of Carey, a journey- 
man shoemaker in the small town of Hac- 
kleton, not far from Northampton. He had 
prayed and made his way into the confi- 
dence of a very limited part of the British 
nation, but had done enough to be pro- 
vided with means for going to India and 
commencing the work of evangelizing 420 
millions of Pagans. 

At the time when Mr. Chalmers' atten- 



122 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



tion was particularly called to the mission, 
success had begun to crown their efforts. 
Carey and his associates were carrying 
forward nineteen different translations of 
the Holy Scriptures, and expending up- 
ward of ten thousand pounds per annum, 
one half of which was the fruit of their 
own personal labor. But in the midst of 
this, a fire broke out in their printing-office 
in Serampore, and in a short time reams 
of paper, and printed sheets, and fonts of 
various types, and several complete editions 
of the Scriptures, were consumed. When 
the news of the disaster reached England, 
the sympathy of the good was at once 
awakened, sermons were preached, and sub- 
scriptions taken up everywhere. Mr. Chal- 
mers was among those whose hearts most 
readily responded. The work was one and 
the same, whether carried on among the 
hills and valleys of his own loved Scotland, 
or among the burning plains of India. It 
was giving the Bible to those who had it 
not, — supplying to poor, needy, dying hu- 
man beings the bread of life. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



123 



At this juncture an application came to 
him from the committee of the Dundee 
Missionary Society asking him to preach 
the annual sermon, the collection to be 
taken up after it. to be devoted to the re- 
storing the burnt property of the mission at 
Serampore. This was the first sermon to 
be delivered on any great public occasion 
since Mr. Chalmers 5 new hope in Christ. 
It was published by the society, and met 
with so rapid a sale, that, before the end of 
the following year, four editions had been 
printed and sold, and its influence was 
very great. To it was attributed mainly 
the immediate success which met the ap- 
plication for help at Serampore, and per- 
haps the continued interest and enthu- 
siasm with which Chalmers always for the 
future regarded the cause of missions, owed 
much to its early connection with the Bible 
cause. 

Of his relation to this society we find the 
following notices in his journal : " Preached 
a missionary sermon in the evening. . . . 
My missionary sermon has reached An- 



124 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



strath er, and I pray that I may feel an 
indifference to human praise." 

We can state but briefly these events 
now, as we wish to show the origin of his 
connection with the many different soci- 
eties. Of the Tract Society we find him 
writing : " Have instituted a sale of tracts 
at John Lumsdain's in this village." In a 
letter of a later date to his sister, he says : 

" I would strongly recommend the cheap 
Repository to you for distribution among 
your neighbors. You get hundreds of 
them for a mere trifle. You may inquire 
for them under the name of religious tracts, 
published by a society in London. The 
reading of them would go far to strengthen 
and establish your own heart, and the dis- 
tribution of them would be a work and 
labor of love worthy of a Christian. After 
you have encouraged a taste for reading 
among your servants and neighbors, you 
may restrain the gratuitous distribution of 
them, and, on the principle of a thing 
bought being more valued than a thing 
given, you may get the bookseller of Dul- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 125 



verton interested in the sale of them. This 
process I mean to follow in my own parish." 
"Writing a few months after to the same 
sister, he makes this first mention of Sab- 
bath schools : " I rejoiced to hear of your 
Sunday school. I once thought of one here, 
but it occurs to me, that, however salutary in 
England, it is not so necessary here. I am 
doubtful of the propriety of detaching the 
children from their parents, their natural 
guardians, who feel that the responsibility 
lies with them. This does not apply to 
your attempt at all, and I would rejoice to 
hear the particulars of your success." 

Mr. Chalmers' first personal experience in 
what was in reality a Sabbath school upon 
a weekday, was in the Saturday meeting 
for religious instruction which we have 
formerly noticed. Beginning with them 
once a month, he came very soon to have 
them once a fortnight, and the course he 
pursued in them was this : " He drew out a 
series of simple propositions which em- 
braced a full system of Christian doctrine, 
appending to each, a reference to those 



126 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMEKS. 



passages in the Bible in which the truth 
declared in the proposition was most clearly 
and fully revealed. . . . Beside his exercises 
upon Scripture doctrine, Mr. Chalmers read 
and explained portions of the Bible, and 
prescribed select passages for committal 
to memory." 

Speaking of this class, after Mr. Chal- 
mers' removal to Glasgow, his biographer 
writes : " Had he not been so soon removed 
from Kilmany, the hopeful appearances 
which were presenting themselves, especially 
among the young who attended his Satur- 
day classes, might have ripened into a 
goodly spiritual fruitage." 

His interest in the religious state and 
physical condition of the poor seems also to 
have had its origin in his love of the Bible. 
We find him in 1814, publishing a pamphlet 
entitled, " The Influence of Bible Societies 
upon the Temporal Necessities of the Poor." 
This led him to investigate very closely 
these temporal necessities, and the result 
was of a nature which colored the whole of 
his future life and efforts. His idea seems 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 127 



in brief to have been, " that where there 
were no poor rates, where the parish bounty- 
was spontaneous, consisting of the offerings 
at the church door, and distributed by 
members of the Kirk session who knew the 
position and habits of those to whose wants 
they ministered, the sum contributed by 
public charity constituted but a small por- 
tion of those supplies by which the existing 
poverty was relieved, the remaining and 
larger portion coming from relatives and 
friends. A public fund, raised not by vol- 
untary subscription, but by legal enforce- 
ment, and which ostensibly charged itself 
with the full and adequate relief of all the 
poverty in the neighborhood, had the direct 
effect of cutting off that second, and more 
copious supply." 

But he does not attack existing institu- 
tions without providing a remedy. He 
says: " The remedies against the extension 
of pauperism do not lie in the liberalities 
of the rich ; it lies in the heart and habits 
of the poor. Plant in their bosoms a prin- 
ciple of independence, give a high tone of 



128 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



delicacy to their character, teach them to 
recoil from pauperism as a degradation. 
. . . Could we reform the improvident 
habits of the people, and pour the healthful 
infusion of Scripture principles into their 
hearts, it would reduce the existing poverty 
of the land to a very humble fraction of its 
present extent." 

A dose attention to these principles ae 
expressed here will serve as a guide to 
much of Mr. Chalmers' future life. It is 
very interesting to observe with what clear 
single-heartedness he looks into the daily 
life and habits of the large number of his 
parishioners who compose this class, and 
how rapidly and with what consummate 
judgment he forms a general principle from 
individual cases. A principle which proves 
itself sound in its future frequent applica- 
tion. 

It has been said that true piety is always 
active, and no greater testimony is borne to 
this by any one than by Mr. Chalmers. 
From the quiet, devoted student, walking 
through God's world with an eye abstracted 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 129 



from her external, in order more surely to 
read her hidden, mysteries, moving around 
among his people, as an odd, preoccupied 
man, whom they might best shun, he be- 
came an earnest, zealous worker, ready in 
season and out of season, always having 
in his heart and on his lips this one petition, 
" Oh, may God pardon and cleanse and 
renew and perfect for Christ's sake." 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Chalmers had now apparently been 
fitted by God for removal to another and 
more extensive field of labor. He needed 
just such workmen in his vineyard, and 
opened the way in a singular and striking 
manner. 

"We give the history in Dr. Hanna's 
words, as they are too full of simplicity and 
pathos to allow alteration or abbreviation 
without injury. 

9 



130 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



" One fearful winter day, the intelligence 
circulated through St. Andrews that a 
vessel had been driven upon a sand-bank 
in the bay to the eastward of the town. 
A crowd of sailors, citizens, and students 
soon collected upon the beach, for the vessel 
had been cast ashore but a few hundred 
yards from the houses, and she lay so near 
that though the heavy air was darkened by 
the driving sleet, they could see at inter- 
vals the crew clinging to a rope or spar ere 
each breaker burst upon her side and 
shrouded all in surfy mist and darkness. 
In a calm sea, a few vigorous strokes 
would have carried a good swimmer to the 
vessel's side, but now the hardiest fisher- 
man drew back and dared not face the 
fatal surge. 

" At last, a student of divinity volunteered. 
Tying a rope round his waist and strug- 
gling through the surf, he threw himself 
among the waves. Forcing his slow way 
through the raging element, he was nearing 
the vessel's side when his friends on shore, 
alarmed at the length of time, and slow 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 131 



rate of recent progress, began to pull him 
back. Seizing a knife which he carried 
between his teeth, he cut this rope away, 
and reaching at last the stranded sloop, 
drew a fresh one from her to the shore ; 
but hungry, weak, and wearied after four 
days foodless tossing through the tempest, 
not one of the crew had the courage or 
strength left to use it. He again rushed 
into the waves, he boarded the vessel, he 
took them man by man, and bore them to 
the land. Six men were rescued thus. His 
seventh charge was a boy so helpless that 
twice was the hold let go, and twice he had 
to dive after him into the deep. Mean- 
time in breathless silence the crowd had 
watched each perilous passage, till the 
double figure was seen coming landward 
through the spray. But when the deed 
was done, the whole crew saved, loud 
cheers of admiring triumph rose around the 
gallant youth. This youth was a college 
friend of Mr; Chalmers, and hardly had he 
heard of his hero's action, before he heard 
also that saving the life of others had cost 



132 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



him his own, for his over-exertions had sown 
the seeds of consumption, which had rap- 
idly borne him to his grave. Over that new 
made grave Mr. Chalmers was invited to 
preach a discourse, and hardly could there 
have been an occasion upon which so much 
of his own interest and feeling would have 
prompted him to make a greater exertion. 
Throughout all the country round a great 
excitement prevailed, and on the appointed 
day, crowds were early seen approaching 
the place. The still churchyard was peo- 
pled with a quiet, solemn multitude, who, 
unable to force their way into the crowded 
church, seated themselves upon every sacred 
hillock, and stood reverently in the narrow 
paths which had been worn by the feet of 
the mourners. Mr. Chalmers must preach 
where he could be heard by all, and, taking 
out the window from the side of the church 
nearest the hero's grave, they placed planks 
upon the sill, and, standing here, the preacher 
was easily heard by all around." 

The following account of the scene is 
from an eye-witness. " A hum in the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



133 



crowd, and a melancholy tolling of the bell 
announced the approach of the preacher, 
who seated himself for a minute or two in 
an old elbow chair, took the psalmbook 
from a little table before him, turned hastily 
over a few of the leaves, then rose in the 
most awkward and even helpless manner. 
Before he read the lines which were to be 
sung, his large and apparently leaden eyes 
were turned toward the recent grave with 
a look wildly pathetic, fraught with intense 
and indescribable passion. The psalm was 
read with no very promising elocution, and 
while the whole mass of the people were 
singing it, he sunk into the chair turned 
seemingly into a monumental statue of the 
coldest stone, so deadly pale was his large 
broad face and forehead. The text was 
read, Deut. 32 : 29, ' Oh that they were wise, 
that they understood this, that they would 
consider their latter end.' " After repeating 
the most important parts of the discourse, 
the same eye-witness observes : " I have 
seen many scenes, and I have heard many 
eloquent men, but this I have never seen 



134 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



equalled or even imitated. It was not 
learning, it was not art ; it was the untaught 
and the unincumbered incantations of gen- 
ius, the mightiest engine of which the 
world can boast." 

Sitting among that spell-bound audience 
were five Glasgow citizens, who, taking a 
special interest in the exercise of the day, 
had come from the city to be present. The 
pulpit of the Tron church in Glasgow had 
become vacant, they were seeking a new 
pastor, the canvass ran high, they must 
have a man, in every sense of the word, in 
so important a post, and the name of Mr. 
Chalmers had begun to attract the notice 
of the far-sighted. This opportunity would 
be a very favorable one of hearing him, and, 
as we have seen, it was not neglected. We 
are not surprised to hear that very soon 
after their return to Glasgow, Mr. Chalmers 
was elected by a majority to fill the va- 
cancy. We shall give the announce- 
ment in a letter to Mr. Chalmers ; also 
his reply. " I have this instant received 
the accounts from Glasgow, that the battle, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



135 



the great battle has been fought, and 
the victory won. . . . The news has had 
little less effect in this city. Every one 
meets, or runs to his friend through a most 
heavy rain to say, Oh, have you heard the 
good news ? Mr. Chalmers is elected to the 
Tron Kirk in Glasgow ! . . . There is, I 
think there can be, but one opinion, that 
the matter is from God, and the call in 
course of the progress of the event, shows it 
to be from heaven, and therefore, you have 
nothing to do, but thankfully to accept. A 
great and effectual door is opened to you 
to publish the glad tidings of peace ; it only 
remains for you to enter in." 

In a letter written to his brother James 
soon after the receipt of this, Mr. Chalmers 
says: " I have resolved to go to Glasgow. 
... I do not pretend to any call from 
Providence in the shape of a vision or a 
voice, yet surely, if Providence overrules all 
events, if the appointment in question is an 
event I had no hand in, during the whole 
progress of the steps which led to it. I 
cautiously abstained from giving any en- 



136 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



couragement to the electors, would not tell 
them whether I would take it or turn from 
it, but left the question quite undecided 
until Providence brought it to my door ; 
then, if there is no intimation of the will of 
Providence here, it must follow either that 
events afford no interpretation of his will, 
or (what I fear falls in with the practical 
atheism of many) God has no share in the 
matter at all. ... I do not say that this 
argument should supersede others, but it 
ought to have a place and a reality in every 
Christian deliberation/' 

We give a few extracts from his journal 
about this time, indicating the workings of 
his own mind and heart. 

" Preached to my people on my removal. 
. . . Have received a most cordial letter 
from the session of the Tron church, Glas- 
gow. O God! keep me from vanity. . . . 
I am in great heaviness. ... I am much 
absorbed. . . . My tenderness opens afresh 
at this last great parochial exercise of duty. 
. . . Had a visitation at Starbank and Sta. 
Still in great tenderness. ... I look at 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 137 



Glasgow as a wilderness. . . . Finished off 
my girl's school. God supports me won- 
derfully. Preached as usual, a great crowd. 
O God! sustain me against tenderness." 

This great crowd seemed steadily to 
increase during the remainder of his stay at 
Kilmany. We read of its being necessary 
to take out the large windows beside the 
pulpit, so that all in doors and out of doors 
could hear at the same time. 

We have already drawn Mr. Chalmers' 
character both as preacher and pastor in 
Kilmany; it remains now to say but a few 
words before following him to his new 
sphere of work in Glasgow. His attach- 
ment to his people had been of late years 
growing stronger and stronger. He says to 
a friend who was walking with him over 
the hill and valleys which he had learned to 
love so well, " Ah, my dear sir, my heart is 
wedded to these hills." 

Twenty years after this, when visiting 
Kilmany, he exclaims : " Oh, there was 
more tearing of the heart-strings in leaving 
the valley of Kilmany, than in leaving all 
my great parish in Glasgow." 



133 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 

J 



His own closing words in his farewell 
address to his people, show the depth and 
extent of his emotions. " Let the Saviour 
put our supplications into one censer, and 
be assured, my brethren, that after the dear 
and much loved scenery of this peaceful 
vale has disappeared from my eye, the 
people who live in it shall retain a warm 
and ever-during place in my memory." 

Soon after the delivery of this discourse, 
we read the following in a letter from Mr. 
Chalmers to his sister. ..." I have been 
in Glasgow and preached to them, and 
spent four days with them, and have been 
carried through such a round of introduc- 
tions and seen such a number of people that 
it is impossible for me to remember one 
fourth part of them/' 

Not very long after this letter his final re- 
moval took place. On Thursday the 13th 
of July, he bade a sorrowful farewell to his 
people and his dear manse at Kilmany, and 
having spent a few days with his parents at 
Anstruther, where he left his family, pro- 
ceeded alone to make his new home in 
Glasgow. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 139 



111 one of his journal letters to his wife, 
soon after his arrival, he says, speaking of 
his lodgings : " They consist of a dining- 
room and bed-room, perhaps not so stylish 
as I would have wished, but in a high, airy 
situation, as fresh and pure as Kilmany 
itself. ... I have not heard from Kilmany 
since I came here. ... I cannot yet bring 
myself to think of my old neighborhood 
without pain, and the whole parting scene 
passes before me in the form of a very 
gloomy and oppressive recollection. . . . 
Speak of me to Effie Nicholson, and though 
I do not name all of the villagers, I love 
them all, and often think of them all. . . . 
I am striving to keep my day from being 
broken in upon till twelve o'clock, and then 
callers and people of all descriptions pour in 
at the rate say of twenty per day. I then 
go out to meetings and visits in the town, 
and endeavor always to have an hour's 
walk in the country before dinner. ... I 
can give you no satisfaction whatever as to 
my liking or not liking Glasgow. Were I 
to judge by my present feelings, I should 



140 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



say that I disliked it most violently, but the 
present state of my mind is not a fair 
criterion, at a distance from my family and 
in a land of strangers, and though beset 
with polite attentions, feeling that there is 
positively in them nothing to replace those 
warmer and kindlier enjoyments which 
friendship brings with it. ... I had about 
one hundred calls in the course of this 
week, and foresee a deal of very strange 
work for a minister in Glasgow. What 
think you of my putting my name to two 
applications for licenses to sell spirit, and 
two certificates of being qualified to follow 
out the calling of peddlers, in the course 
of yesterday ? . . . This is a wonderful 
place, and I am half entertained and half 
provoked by some of the peculiarities of 
the people. The peculiarity which bears 
hardest upon me is the incessant demand 
they have upon all occasions for the per- 
sonal attendance of the ministry. . . . They 
have a niche assigned them in almost every 
public doing, and that niche must be filled 
up by them, or the doing loses all its so- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 141 



lemnity in the eyes of the public. ... I 
gave in to all this at first, but I am be- 
ginning to keep a suspicious eye upon 
these repeated demands, ever since I sat 
nearly an hour in grave deliberation with a 
number of others upon a subject connected 
with the property of a corporation, and 
that subject was a gutter, and the ques- 
tion was, whether it should be bought and 
covered up, or let alone and left to lie 
open." 

Glasgow evidently makes slow progress 
in Mr. Chalmers' affection ; he pines for his 
quiet manse, and his attentive, hearty peo- 
ple in his dear Kilmany ; every annoyance 
here is felt, weighed, and commented upon 
in a manner which shows that his heart is 
not yet here. He brings his family, con- 
sisting now of a new member — the baby 
Jane up to Glasgow, rents a cheap house, 
and tries to settle down ; but in a letter to 
his sister soon after, there are so many 
reasons given for not liking the place that 
it seems hardly possible for him to remain 
there. The quantity of secular work for 



142 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the clergy, the multitude of calls and invi- 
tations, the fatigue of preaching, and the 
smoke and dense air of the city, all are 
fruitful sources of discomfort to him ; but 
in the mean time, his power as a preacher 
and his reputation as such, was reaching 
its height. It seems really singular that 
Sabbath after Sabbath his church should 
have been crowded to overflowing, and that 
he should have preserved through it all, 
such simplicity and purity of heart as 
hardly to have made the discovery of his 
popularity. We have not yet given a 
description of his peculiar mode of preach- 
ing or of his personal appearance ; perhaps 
no place could be found in which to present 
these better than the present, for he has now 
fairly arrived at that eminence from which, 
during his whole future life, he commanded 
not only the church of his native Scotland, 
but influenced the world. We find a letter 
from a young man, a listener to one of M& 
Chalmers' first Glasgow efforts, which gives 
us all we can wish in our portraiture of the 
man. We copy it in part. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



143 



" I was a good deal surprised and per- 
plexed with the first glimpse I obtained of 
his countenance, for the light that streamed 
faintly upon it for the moment, did not 
reveal any thing like that general outline 
of feature and visage for which my fancy 
had by some strange working of presenti- 
ment prepared me. By and by, however, 
the light became stronger and I was ena- 
bled to study the minutiae of his face pretty 
leisurely, while he leaned forward and read 
aloud the words of the psalm, for that is 
always done in Scotland, not by the church, 
but by the clergyman himself. At first 
sight no doubt his face is a coarse one, but 
a mysterious kind of - meaning breathes 
from every part of it, that such as have 
eyes to see cannot be long without discov- 
ering. It is very pale, and the large, half- 
closed eyelids have a certain drooping, 
melancholy weight about them which in- 
terested me very much, I understood not 
why. The lips, too, are singularly pensive 
in their mode of falling down at the sides, 
although there is no want of richness and 



144 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



vigor in their central fulness of curve. The 
upper lip from the nose downward is sepa- 
rated by a very deep line, which gives a 
sort of leonine firmness of expression to all 
the lower part of the face. The cheeks are 
square and strong in texture, like pieces of 
marble, with the cheek bones very broad 
and prominent. The eyes themselves are 
light in color, and have a strange, dreamy 
heaviness that conveys any idea rather than 
that of dulness, but which contrast in a 
wonderful manner with the dazzling, wa- 
tery glare they exhibit when expanded in 
their sockets, and illuminated into all their 
flame and power in some moment of 
high, entranced enthusiasm. But the shape 
of the forehead is, perhaps, the most singu- 
lar part of the whole visage, and, indeed, it 
presents a mixture so very singular of forms 
commonly exhibited only in the widest 
separation, that it is no wonder I should 
have required some little time to compre- 
hend the meaning of it. In the first place, 
it is, without exception, the most mathe- 
matical forehead I ever met with — being 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 145 

far wider across the eyebrows than either 
Mr. Playfair's or Mr. Leslie's, and having 
the eyebrows themselves lifted up at their 
exterior ends quite out of the usual line, a 
peculiarity which Spurzheim had remarked 
in the countenances of almost all the great 
mathematicians or calculating geniuses, 
such for example, if I rightly remember, as 
Sir Isaac Newton, Kristina, Euler, and 
many others. Immediately above the ex- 
traordinary breadth of this region, which in 
the heads of most mathematical persons is 
surmounted by no fine points of organi- 
zation whatever; immediately above this, 
in the forehead there is the arch of imagi- 
nation, carrying out the summit boldly and 
roundly in a style to which the heads of 
very few poets present any thing compar- 
able, while over this again, there is a grand 
apex of high and solemn veneration and 
love, such as might have graced the head 
of Plato himself, and such as in living 
men I have never seen equalled except in 
the majestic head of Canova. The whole 
is edged with a few crisped dark locks, 
10 



146 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



which stand forth boldly and afford a fine 
relief to the deathlike paleness of those 
massive temples. ... Of all human com- 
position, there is none surely which loses so 
much as a sermon does when it is made to 
address itself to the eye of a solitary stu- 
dent in his closet, and not to the thrilling 
ears of a mighty mingled congregation, 
through the very voice which nature has 
enriched with notes more expressive than 
words can ever be of the feelings and 
meaning of its author. Neither, perhaps, 
did the world ever possess an orator, whose 
minutest peculiarity of gesture and voice, 
has more power in increasing the effect of 
what he says, — whose delivery, in other 
words, is the first, and the second, and the 
third excellence of his oratory, more truly 
than in that of Dr. Chalmers. And yet, 
were the man less gifted than he is, there 
is no question these his lesser peculiarities 
would never have been numbered among 
his points of excellence. His voice is 
neither strong nor melodious ; his gestures 
are neither easy nor graceful ; but on the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



147 



contrary extremely rude and awkward ; 
his pronunciation is not only broadly na- 
tional but broadly provincial, distorting 
almost every word he utters into some bar- 
barous novelty, which, had his hearer leis- 
ure to think of such things, might be pro- 
ductive of an effect both ludicrous and 
offensive in a singular degree. But of a 
truth these are things which no listener can 
attend to while this great preacher stands 
before him, armed with all the weapons of 
the most commanding eloquence, and sway- 
ing all around him with its imperial rule. 
At first, indeed, there is nothing to make 
one suspect what riches are in store. He 
commences in a low, drawling key, which 
has not even the merit of being solemn, 
and advances from sentence to sentence 
and from paragraph to paragraph, while 
you seek in vain to catch a single echo 
that gives promise of all that is to come. 
There is, on the contrary, an appearance of 
constraint about him, that affects and dis- 
tresses you. You are afraid that his breast 
is weak, and that even the slightest exer- 



148 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



tion he makes may be too much for it. 
But, then, with what tenfold richness does 
this dim preliminary curtain make the 
glories of his eloquence to shine forth, when 
the heated spirit at length shakes from its 
chill confining fetters, and bursts out elate 
and rejoicing in the full splendor of its 
disimprisoned wings. ... I have heard 
men deliver sermons far better arranged in 
regard to argument, and have heard very 
many deliver sermons far more uniform in 
elegance, both of conception and style ; but, 
most unquestionably, I have never heard 
either in England or Scotland, or in any 
other country, any preacher whose eloquence 
is capable of producing an effect so strong 
and irresistible as his." 

This description cannot be considered as 
exaggerated, although its terms of admi- 
ration and commendation sound pretty 
strong, for we have nearly the same testi- 
mony from all who heard him at this time. 
Such unlimited popularity and success 
could not but soon bring with it content- 
ment, and we are very glad after a few 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 149 



months to find Mr. Chalmers writing to a 
friend, — 

" It is just as you said, Mrs. Chalmers has 
come, and time has had space to operate, 
and all the familiarities of a settled home 
and a friendly neighborhood are gathering 
around me, and I am every day getting 
more reconciled to my new situation." " I 
have met with some very delightful exhibi- 
tions of the genuine working of humility 
and conviction in the minds of my visitors." 

Mr. Chalmers had too warm a heart to 
remain long in any place without forming 
some strong personal attachments. His 
whole life in Glasgow is rendered beautiful, 
and often touching, by the fervid feeling 
which he so constantly exhibits for those he 
loves. Before being a month in his new 
home, we read of his forming so strong an 
attachment to a young lawyer, Mr. Thomas 
Smith, that it occupied much of his time 
and thoughts during the young man's life. 
He was the first who became a Christian 
under Mr. Chalmers' ministry in Glasgow, 
and his personal affection probably arose in 



150 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



part from his deep interest in his religious 
state. He was his daily companion in his 
long walks. They appointed, with true 
Scotch taste, " a trysting-place," and met 
there daily. ^ They read together, studied 
together, and spent hours together in social 
prayer. Beside this, they often during the 
day interchanged little notes, and it is really 
singular to see the minister of the Tron 
church planning walks and paths with his 
young friend with all the ardor of a lover. 

When separated, as they sometimes were, 
by Mr. Chalmers' retiring to some of the 
country residences of his friends, for quiet, 
rest, and uninterrupted study, a daily inter- 
change of letters took place, and these 
letters contain very much that is valuable 
to a mind and heart seeking God. 

But death was on the track again of 
Mr. Chalmers' affections. Mr. Smith sick- 
ens, grows weaker and weaker, the walks 
are discontinued, and the pastor must now 
no longer wait for the daily visitor, but go 
with a sad heart to his sick-room. 

Hardly during any other period of his 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



151 



life does Mr. Chalmers show such tender- 
ness of affection. On one Sabbath, Mr. 
Chalmers was to preach a sermon before 
the magistrates of the city. We find him 
within a half hour of the time the bell was 
to call all together, sitting down alone in 
his study, his thoughts not filled with the 
pomp and importance of the coming sermon, 
but with his sick friend. Taking up his 
pen he writes: "I could not resist the 
opportunity of Mrs. C. who goes to inquire 
for you. May this be a precious Sabbath 
to you. . . . Expect me during the inter- 
val." When very much pressed with busi- 
ness, Mr. Chalmers might frequently be 
seen sitting in the room with his dying 
friend, busily engaged in writing." 

A friend who one day found him so 
employed, expressed his wonder that he 
could compose in such a situation. . . . 
"Ah! my dear sir," said Mr. Chalmers, 
casting a look of profound and inexpress- 
ible sympathy towards the sufferer, " there 
is much in mere juxtaposition with so 
interesting an object." 



152 



LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



In the interval of examining members 
for admittance to the communion, he takes 
his pen and writes : " I am left alone in the 
interval between my fourth and fifth person, 
and fondly recur to you. . . . Be not afraid, 
only believe. Feel yourself encompassed 
by the everlasting arms of a God who has 
no pleasure in your death." 

And now came a pressure of ministerial 
duties in a week, called in the Scotch 
church the sacramental week, but during 
all this the long daily notes were not 
omitted. When the week was passed, 
Mr. Chalmers was obliged to leave Glas- 
gow for rest and recreation. Letters came 
from him everywhere, bearing evidence 
that he watched ever the sun, sky, clouds, 
and wind, hoping or fearing, as they 
might bring relief or suffering to the dear 
patient. No mother's watchfulness could 
have been more unwearied. He draws, too, 
portraitures of the different characters with 
whom he meets in his travels, describes the 
scenes and scenery, any t 1 ing to amuse 
and relieve the tedium of that sick-room, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



153 



but always and above all, there is that 
deep, solemn responsibility of a pastor 
fitting one of his charge for another life. 

Gracefully and beautifully he draws these 
truths, — nothing forced, nothing intrusive, 
the most sensitive sick heart would have 
found rest and comfort in his words. After 
describing a scene of much loveliness, he 
remarks perhaps as follows : " If there be 
so much beauty on the face of this dark and 
disordered world, how much may we look 
for in that earth and those heavens wherein 
dwelleth righteousness ? " 

Before his return from this excursion, 
Mr. Smith died, and we find the following 
entry in his journal : 

" On my return, Thomas Smith was 
dead. He died on Thursday the 2d of 
May, at eleven at night, and was buried 
this day. I have been thrown into suc- 
cessive floods of tenderness. On Sabbath 
evening I visited his corpse. O God! 
may this afflicting event detach me from 
time, and carry my thoughts onward to 
eternity! " 



154 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



A ring containing Mr. Smith's hair was 
worn by Mr. Chalmers for many years, and 
after being discontinued was replaced upon 
his finger for a month during the year of 
his own decease, thus showing that neither 
time nor the events of a busy Ufe had 
power to make him forget one whom he 
had so fondly loved. 



CHAPTER XL 

The month succeeding Mr. Smith's death 
was one of much labor for Mr. Chalmers. 
There were some important church ques- 
tions to be settled, drawing from him fine 
and effective speeches. There was the 
General Assembly to be attended, and a 
sermon to be preached before the Lord 
High Commissioner, another before the 
Society of the Sons of the Clergy in Edin- 
burgh, beside the common amount of pas- 
toral labor. 

About this time he had conferred upon 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



155 



him the title of D. D. ; therefore we must 
speak of him now through our future pages 
under the more respectful appellation of 
Dr. Chalmers. 

As the procedures of this month would 
be more interesting to theologians than to 
our young readers, we pass over them to 
accompany the worn and jaded minister on 
his tour of recreation during the vacation 
month of July. It is really pleasant to read 
that " he has now six weeks for himself, 
and that he will pass it rambling about 
among the hills, valleys, and sea-shore of 
Fifeshire." We can almost hear old ocean 
calling him hence, with the same unchang- 
ing voice with which she talked to him in 
his boyhood days, and watch the little 
white waves as they tumble on, anxious to 
sport with the man grown only old in years, 
but not in heart. 

Sometimes on foot he walked slowly 
over the well-remembered paths, some- 
times on horseback when too weary to 
w r alk, sometimes asking a seat in the 
carriage of some old and not forgotten 



156 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



friend, giving little heed to his luggage, but 
contenting himself with the knowledge that 
it would probably reach the end of the 
journey about the same time with himself. 
And so he came to Anstruther, and we can 
see his aged father as he turned his eyes, 
now almost sightless, upon his son, wiping 
the fast falling tears away, and hear him 
praying with Simeon, — " Now lettest thou 
thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes 
have seen thy salvation/' During those long 
summer days, in that soft Scotch twilight 
which almost links morning and night, he 
sits by the side of those reverend parents, 
and tells us, " I have sat two hours with 
my parents this evening, and I trust I have 
acquitted myself to their satisfaction, hav- 
ing answered their every question, and 
feeling a real pleasure in meeting their 
observation, and helping forward the crack 
with observations of my own." 

On the next Sabbath, we find him lead- 
ing his father to church. How vividly, by 
contrast, it must have recalled the time 
when things were reversed, and his father 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 157 



led him to church. Oh, how wearisome 
those days were to him then ! how oppress- 
ive and stiff that quiet, orderly, exact 
method of spending them ! How worse 
than useless had seemed the sanctity of 
those holy hours ! But now, the young 
father was an old man, and there, standing 
on the verge of that other world, he was 
looking forward with joy and comfort for 
those Sabbaths that should never end. Dr. 
Chalmers did not need this testimony to 
the truth of that more rigid practice. He had 
long since learned to love the day for itself, 
and, writing from Anstruther, he says : " I 
know nothing that brings back the olden 
time more than an Anstruther Sabbath. 
Oh that I could improve it more, and enter 
with greater life and devotion into its pe- 
culiar exercises ! 

He spent a week with his parents, hunted 
up his t{ old cronies," walked over every 
familiar and dearly remembered spot, then, 
bidding farewell to them all, proceeded to 
Kilmany. He gives the following descrip- 
tion of his entree to his old home ; c< The 



158 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



first parish hamlet I came to was the back 
of Mount Quhannie, where I turned out 
the population, and went through a great 
deal of spurring and hand shaking. I did 
the same among all the houses immedi- 
ately around Mount Quhannie. One of 
my female scholars wept aloud, and I was 
very much moved. . . . Mr. La wson walked 
to Rathellit w T ith me. I met with several 
people here, and had a turn out of popula- 
tion from several of the houses." We 
should like to follow him through all this 
welcoming, but must hasten on to the 
Sabbath, when he was to preach to his old 
people. 

"I walked," he writes, "with James to 
Kilmany. The road was lined with crowds 
of people. Had several hand shakings on 
my way to the manse." As he approaches 
this first home, every object is replete 
with pleasant associations. He says even 
of the old gate: "I remarked that the 
large gate labored under its wonted diffi- 
culty of being opened, and this circum- 
stance, though minute, brought back the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 159 



olden time with a gush of tenderness. 
Supped, showed the guests to the door as 
usual, but felt a coldness and a melancholy 
at the difference ; presided at family wor- 
ship, — was conducted to the best bedroom, 
where I indulged for some time in lively 
recollections, which carried a mournfulness 
along with them. On the next morning 
he takes a familiar walk around the village, 
where he notices every thing, even to the 
boy whose " head is as curly as ever I saw 
on a water-dog, and the hair so grown that 
his face looks like a half-crown with a pro- 
digious system of headdress all around it." 

On Sabbath morning, he was persuaded 
by some of his old friends, against his 
better judgment, to preach in the same 
church window from which he had delivered 
his farewell sermon. Of this, he himself 
says : " This was unfortunate, for the day 
was windy, and a great number of the 
people did not hear me, and the effect on 
myself was very fatiguing, and I have really 
gotten a most nervous repugnance to 
crowds. ... It was not preaching to my 



160 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



good old people. Many of them were 
jostled out, and instead of them I had an 
immense and most oppressive multitude." 

His visit to Starbank, the place where 
Mrs. Chalmers had formerly resided, is 
beautifully described, but the length of our 
narrative will not allow us to linger over 
such pleasant scenes. We must on to his 
record of his farewell to them all : " After 
tea, took a tender adieu of them all. As I 
went through the town on my horse, saw 
the wives of the 'long row' at their doors 
looking toward me. Passed the manse 
gate with the weight of feeling that it was 
my home no more. The evening was 
beautiful, and sweetly did the declining 
sun shine upon all the groups of hamlet 
objects that were before me. The manse 
in a glow of luxuriance. I took many a 
look, till it sunk beneath the summit of the 
road/' 

A fortnight more of these pleasant 
visitings and wanderings, and Dr. Chal- 
mers began to look forward, almost with 
dread, to an immediate return to Glasgow. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 161 



This vacation had been to him not only 
a season of recreation, bat he had had 
many busy hours, — hours devoted to the 
closest thinking and severest composition. 
He composed now the fourth of his astro- 
nomical discourses, the popularity of which 
makes it necessary to give a slight sketch 
of their origin. 

It was the custom in the Tron church in 
Glasgow to have a series of discourses 
delivered every Thursday afternoon. This 
was done in rotation by the different clergy- 
men, returning to each once in two months. 
When it came Dr. Chalmers' turn, he chose 
the new and unexpected subject of astron- 
omy, presenting the recent discoveries, and 
discussing the argument against the Chris- 
tian revelation, grounded on the vastness 
and variety of the unnumbered stars of 
night. The following is the description 
given by his biographer of their reception in 
Glasgow. 

" The spectacle which presented itself in 
the Tron-gate upon the day of the delivery 
of each new astronomical discourse was a 
11 



162 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



most singular one. Long ere the bell began 
to toll, a stream of people might be seen 
pouring through the passage which led to 
the Tron church. Across the street, and 
immediately opposite this passage, was the 
old reading-room where all the Glasgow 
merchants met. So soon, however, as the 
gathering, quickening stream upon the op- 
posite side of the street gave the accus- 
tomed warning, out flowed the occupants of 
the coffee-room, the pages of the Herald or 
the Courier were for a while forsaken, and, 
during two of the best business hours of 
the day, the old reading-room wore a 
strange aspect of desolation. The busiest 
merchants of the city were wont, indeed, 
upon these memorable days, to leave their 
desks, and kind masters allowed their ap- 
prentices and clerks to follow their example. 
Out of the very heart of the great tumult, 
an hour or two stood redeemed for the 
highest exercises of the spirit; and, the low 
traffic of earth forgotten, heaven and its 
high economy, and its human sympathies, 
and eternal interests, engrossed the minds 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



163 



at least, and the fancy, of congregated 
thousands/' 

Two years after delivery, these sermons 
were printed, and the sale they met with 
was as unprecedented and rapid as that of 
some of the works of Walter Scott, which 
were published at nearly the same time. 
The voice of the public, both in Scotland 
and England, was loud in their praise ; the 
most fastidious literary critics were obliged 
to confess the volume unrivalled in point 
of magnificent passages, splendid diction, 
and strong thought. If it had been neces- 
sary to establish Dr. Chalmers' claim to the 
first place in the British pulpit, this volume 
had now accomplished this with hardly a 
dissenting voice ; and it is no slight proof of 
the genius of the author, that these dis- 
courses were mostly written in the same 
way in which he himself describes the 
writing of the fourth : " I began my fourth 
astronomical sermon to-day," and in a small 
pocket-book with borrowed pen and ink, in 
strange apartments where he was liable 
every moment to interruption, that sermon 



164 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



was taken up and carried on to its comple- 
tion. 

Soon after the publication of these dis- 
courses, while his reputation was at its 
height, Dr. Chalmers made a visit to Lon- 
don in company with Mr. Smith, the father 
of his deceased friend, and Mrs. Chalmers. 
The records which we find of this visit are 
highly interesting. We can only glean 
here and there a few ; and one thing is very 
noticeable, — nearly all the sermons which 
he preached were for some charitable object. 
The first sermon which he delivered was 
the anniversary sermon for the London 
[Missionary Society. We are told that 
although service did not commence until 
eleven, " at seven in the morning the chapel 
was crowded to excess, and many thou- 
sands went off for want of room." Be- 
tween two and three hundred students of 
theology occupied the gallery, and the elite 
and literary of London filled every corner. 
The opening prayer was made by Dr. 
Kolloch, an American clergyman, and it 
may be supposed the strong national ac- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



cents of Dr. Chalmers when he rose and 
announced his text were in striking con- 
trast with the softer and more musical tones 
of our own countryman. At first his voice 
was weak and unmanageable. Expecta- 
tion was at its highest; but so unpromising 
a beginning soon had its effect. Looks of 
disappointment, amounting almost to cha- 
grin, were visible upon the faces of the 
audience ; but in a few minutes his voice 
gained strength, it reached every part of the 
house, and even the most listless must 
attend. His sentences became long; but 
their well turned periods riveted the listen- 
ers and kept them breathless, until, ex- 
hausted himself, the minister sought rest 
both for them and himself in the singing of 
two verses of a hymn. 

This first discourse occupied about an 
hour and a half, and was pronounced by a 
listener "the most astonishing display of 
human talent that perhaps ever commanded 
sight or hearing. ... I had a full view of 
the whole place. The carrrying forward of 
minds never was so visible to me ; a con- 



166 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



stant assent of the heads from the whole 
people accompanied all his paragraphs ; and 
the breathlessness of expectation permitted 
not the beating of a heart to agitate the 
stillness/' 

" Old Rowland Hill stood the whole 
time at the foot of the pulpit, gazing on the 
preacher with great earnestness, and when- 
ever any sentiment was uttered which met 
his approval, signifying his assent by a 
gentle nod of the head and an expressive 
smile. " 

He continues to preach, now for the 
Scottish hospital for the relief of the aged 
and destitute natives of Scotland, and now 
for the Hibernian Society, and then again 
for his brother minister in the Scotch 
church in Swallow street. 

Of this exercise, we have the following 
curious description : ,; On approaching the 
church, Dr. Chalmers and a friend found so 
dense a mass within and before the build- 
ing as to give no hope of effecting an 
entrance by the mere force of ordinary 
pressure. Lifting his cane and gently 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 167 



tapping the heads of those who were in 
advance, Dr. Chalmers' friend exclaimed, 
' Make way there — make way for Dr. 
Chalmers? Heads indeed were turned at 
the summons, and looks were given ; but with 
not a few significant tokens of incredulity, 
and some broad hints that they were not to 
be taken in by any such device, the sturdy 
Londoners refused to move. Forced to 
retire, Dr. Chalmers retreated from the 
outskirts of the crowd, crossed the street, 
stood for a few moments gazing on the 
growing tumult, and had almost resolved al- 
together to withdraw. . . . Access by any of 
the ordinary means was impossible. In 
this emergency, and as there was still some 
unoccupied space around the pulpit which 
the crowd had not been able to appropriate, 
a plank was projected from one of the 
windows until it rested on an iron palisade," 
and by this means Dr. Chalmers was at 
last able to take possession of his pulpit. 

His discourse was solemn and impressive, 
dealing with the personal spiritual interests 
of his hearers in a bold and searching 
manner. 



168 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 

Dr. Chalmers' private reception seems to 
have been quite as flattering as his public. 
"We read: "The agitation here on account 
of Dr. Chalmers is quite unprecedented. 
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord 
Sidmouth, Lord Melville, and others, have 
desired to be introduced to him. At pres- 
ent he is off to the Chancellor's, and we 
have just had a message from the Lord 
Mayor, telling us of his intention to call 
here to-day. Canning and Wilberforce, 
Lord Elgin, Sir James Mackintosh, and a 
host of other noted men, are among his 
listeners; and Canning is affected to tears, 
declaring that 4 the tartan beats us all,' 
while Wilberforce speaks of ' all the world 
being wild about him, while he seems 
truly pious, simple, and unassuming.'" 

Dr. Chalmers remains in London but a 
short time. " The insufferable urgency of 
the place," to use his own words, " drove him 
away, and we find him on his way back to 
Glasgow, resting with an elder of his 
church at a quiet country inn, where he is," 
he says, " living in great comfort and retire- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 169 



ment," busy with his studies, and preparing 
soon to resume his labors in Glasgow. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Upon Dr. Chalmers' return to Glasgow, 
he found much pastoral labor accumulated. 
His parish consisted of more than eleven 
thousand souls ; and he wished not to be 
the pastor only of the intelligent, educated 
community around him, but to reach and 
benefit the thousands of the poor and suf- 
fering who made up his charge. He there- 
fore determined to commence a series of 
visits, which were not to end until every 
family had been seen. Taking with him 
one of the elders of his church, Dr. Chal- 
mers might be seen threading all the by- 
lanes of his section of the city, now climb- 
ing up into the attic of some over-populated 
house to visit a poor widow, and now 
ferreting out from the cellar some orphan 



170 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



children without home or friends. He did 
not have any religious exercises in these 
visits. He made himself personally known 
to them, inquired respecting their education, 
their manner of life, their religious char- 
acter, and their habits of church-going : but 
the effect of these calls was great upon 
Dr. Chalmers' own character, settling and 
developing more distinctly his original 
views with regard to the condition of the 
poor of Scotland. 

It is related of him. that once upon one 
of these visits with his elder, as he was 
toiling up some long and weary stairs, he 
looked over in s shoulder to the flaggtiig 
man. and said : 

"Well, what do you think of this kind 
of visiting ? 99 Engrossed with the toils of 
the ascent, the elder announced that he had 
not been thinking of it. 

« Oh. I know fall well." said Dr. Chal- 
mers. " that if you were to speak your mind, 
you would say that we are putting the 
butter very thinly upon the bread/' 

During these visitations, writing to a 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 171 



friend, he says: "A very great proportion 
of the people have no seats in any place of 
worship whatever, and a very deep and 
universal ignorance on the high matters of 
faith and eternity attains over the whole 
extent of a mighty population." 

The way to reach and benefit this mighty 
population became with Dr. Chalmers now 
a prominent object. In some very able 
discourses he stated plainly to his people, 
that, as a servant of God, he could no 
longer hold himself responsible for the dis- 
charge of such municipal duties as the 
government of the city of Glasgow laid 
upon its clergy, that he needed his time and 
strength for those whom Christ had com- 
mitted to his church, always. 

Resolutely refusing to obey all civil sum- 
mons, he set himself about organizing a 
system of Sabbath school instruction, by 
the instrumentality of which he hoped to 
effect his object. The elders of the Tron 
church were accustomed "to stand at the 
plate," receive the freewill offerings of the 
congregation as they entered, and distrib- 



172 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



ute them to the poor by a monthly allow- 
ance ; but with this, all their care of the 
poor ended. Dr. Chalmers must have a 
younger and more effective corps. Con- 
vinced that the poor were only to be reached 
at home, he determined to interest and 
engage a number of his best men in the 
system of Sabbath school instruction. He 
wished to have these schools opened in the 
various districts of his parish, and the chil- 
dren drawn out by personal intercourse 
with and attachment to their teachers. 

He formed a society among a few mem- 
bers of his congregation for this purpose, 
and on the 10th of December, 1816, Mr. 
Collins, one of these gentlemen, is reported 
as having opened the first of these projected 
schools in Campbell street with thirteen 
scholars. It was astonishing how rapidly 
the schools grew ; new ones were constantly 
opening; new teachers volunteering ; and, at 
the end of two years, it was found that 
twelve hundred children were receiving 
regular religious instruction. In order to 
become a member of these schools, the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 173 



pupil must be able to read accurately, and 
he was required to commit lessons in the 
Bible, Shorter Catechism, and Scripture 
References. Every teacher taught and 
governed his school after his own plan. 

It was not long before the good of the 
schools was so apparent, not only upon the 
young but upon the whole class of poor 
people, that Dr. Chalmers resolved to go 
out from his own parish and establish them 
wherever he thought they would do most 
good. His plan was briefly this : " Marking 
out a small and definite locality, getting a 
room for the school within its limits, and 
charging the teacher with the educational 
oversight of all its families." 

Speaking of the effects of these Sabbath 
schools many years after, a Scotch news- 
paper — the Scottish Guardian — says : 
" These schools continue to the present 
day, and there have flowed from these small 
local Sabbath schools eight other societies, 
in different parts of the city and suburbs, 
all fairly traceable to the impetus given in 
the Tron parish by Dr. Chalmers in this 



174 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



branch of parochial economy. I consider, 
had Dr. Chalmers done nothing more than 
promote this local system of Sabbath schools, 
he would not have lived in vain. You can 
easily conceive the labor and fatigue he 
must have undergone, first to convince his 
agents of the propriety of his plan, then to 
keep them from breaking the rules. You 
also know the difficulty of retaining Sab- 
bath school teachers for any lengthened 
period under any system of management, 
untrained as they are to the art. and ever 
sanguine for immediate results. The Doc- 
tor's Christian simplicity, however, operated 
powerfully in restraining them all." 

But it was with this good undertaking as 
with almost every other. — it met with much 
opposition and many hard words at first. 
Probably Dr. Chalmers himself would look 
back to the time when he had written to his 
sister that this system was good for 
England, but he doubted about i"t in Scot- 
land. Xow he had to encounter many of 
the same objections. " These Sabbath 
schools would interfere with the proper 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 175 



domestic training of the young. They 
were engaging laymen in what was fit and 
suitable employment for clergymen alone. 
They would be the means of disseminating 
a spirit of fanatical piety throughout the 
land." Dr. Chalmers took his usual mode 
of meeting and expelling opposition, — he 
wrote and preached a powerful sermon in 
defence of his favorite object. I quote only 
one sentence. " I do rejoice particularly in 
the multiplication of these humble and 
often despised seminaries. . . . That and 
unction of blessedness may emanate abroad 
upon every neighborhood in which they are 
situated, that they occupy a high point of 
command over the moral destinies of our 
city, for the susceptibilities of childhood 
and youth are what they deal with." 

While Dr. Chalmers was so busy with 
the youth and children of his parish, he did 
not by any means neglect the important 
duties of his pulpit. He had reached now 
the zenith of his popularity, and while he 
was in his hours of relaxation hunting up 
the poor and sinful, he was writing in his 



176 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



hours of study, composing those discourses 
upon which his future reputation must rest. 
The Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, a Scotch clergy- 
man, and a frequent attendant upon Dr. 
Chalmers' preaching, after having given an 
account of the crowd hastening to the Tron 
church on Thursday afternoon, similar to 
one we have previously quoted, goes on 
with this description of the meeting. " Sup- 
pose the congregation thus assembled, — 
pews filled with sitters, and aisles to a great 
extent with standers. They wait in eager 
expectation. The preacher appears. The 
devotional exercises of praise and prayer 
having been gone through with unaffected 
simplicity and earnestness, the entire as- 
sembly seat themselves for the treat, with 
feelings very diverse in kind, but all eager 
and intent. There is a hush of dead 
silence. The text is announced, and he 
begins. Every countenance is up, — every 
eye bent with fixed intentness on the 
speaker. As he kindles, the interest grows. 
Every breath is held, every cough is sup- 
pressed, every fidgety movement is settled; 



LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



177 



every one. riveted himself by the spell of 
the impassioned and entrancing eloquence, 
knows how sensitively his neighbor will 
resent the very slightest disturbance. Then, 
by and by, there is a pause. The speaker 
stops — to gather breath — to wipe his fore- 
head — to adjust his gown, and purposely 
too, and wisely, to give the audience as well 
as himself a moment or two of relaxation. 
The moment is embraced — there is a free 
breathing — suppressed coughs give vent — 
postures are'changed, there is a universal stir 
as of persons who could not have endured 
the constraint much longer, — the preacher 
bends forward, his hand is raised, — all is 
again hushed. The same stillness and 
strain of unrelaxed attention are repeated, 
more intent still it may be than before, as 
the interest of the subject and of the speaker 
advances. And so, for perhaps four or five 
times in the sermon, there is the relaxation, 
and then at it again till the final winding 
up." 

At the close of a Sabbath evening's 
sermon on death-bed repentance, a hearer 
12 



178 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



says : " Intense emotion beamed from his 
countenance. . . . The congregation, in so 
far as the spell I was under would allow 
me to observe them, were intensely excited, 
leaning forward in the pews, like a forest 
bending under the power of the hurricane, — 
looking steadfastly at the preacher, and 
listening in breathless wonderment. One 
young man, apparently by his dress a sailor, 
who sat in the pew before me, started to 
his feet and stood till it was over. So soon 
as it was concluded, there was (as invari- 
ably was the case at the close of the Doc- 
tor's bursts) a deep sigh, or rather gasp, for 
breath, accompanied by a movement through 
the whole audience." 

Another interesting description is given 
of an occurrence which took place on a 
Sabbath evening. The church was densely 
crowded, with the hope, though not with the 
confident expectation, of hearing Dr. Chal- 
mers preach ; but at last, " The beadle en- 
tered the pulpit with the Bible. All was still 
for a few moments. Every eye within sight 
of the vestry door was anxiously fixed upon 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



179 



it to see who should appear. No sooner 
was the Doctor observed entering the church 
than an expression of intense delight rustled 
very perceptibly through the house. There 
was actually (I do not exaggerate) a move- 
ment of the w r hole congregation. At this 
moment a crash at the passage door was 
heard ; crash after crash followed in rapid 
succession, intermingled with screams from 
the outer porch, chiefly from terrified 
females. Two of the doorkeepers who 
were standing in the passage rushed to the 
door, which was evidently giving way, to 
prevent if possible its being forced in. 
They quickly retreated, seeing as they did 
at once, that neither door nor doorkeeper 
could withstand the pressure. The door 
immediately gave way with a thundering 
noise, one of the leaves torn from its hinges 
and trampled underfoot. The rush was 
tremendous. In one instant the whole 
vacant place in front of the pulpit was 
crammed, and the torrent flowed on, flowing 
into and filling to its very end at the vestry 
door, the passage through which the Doctor 



180 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



had just entered. The occurrence grieved 
and for a while discomposed him, and upon 
rising to begin the service, he administered 
a sharp and impassioned rebuke to the 
parties involved in it." On his way home 
he expressed to his companion, Dr. Ward- 
law, his dislike of such crowds. " I preached 
the same sermon," said he, " in the morning, 
and for the very purpose of preventing the 
oppressive annoyance of such a densely 
crowded place. I intimated that I should 
preach it again this evening," and with the 
most ingenuous guilelessness, he added, 
" Have you ever tried that plan ? " I did not 
smile, I laughed outright. " No, no," I 
replied, " my good friend, there are but very 
few of us under the necessity of having 
recourse to the use of means for getting 
thin audiences." He enjoyed the joke, and 
he felt, though he modestly disowned, the 
compliment. 

While thus in the midst of human ap- 
plause Dr. Chalmers was laying up for 
himself earthly honor, his journal does not 
leave us without a knowledge of the effect 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 181 



which was produced by so much popularity 
upon his own private character. A few 
extracts from this will be replete with in- 
terest, for the preacher becomes in our 
affection merged in the man, and we would 
not that he should gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul. He writes thus : 

" Not an adequate sense of God in church. 
Fear I still have much vanity. . . . Trust 
that I am finding my way to Christ as the 
Lord my strength. . . . Oh, guard me 
against the charms of human praise. . . . 
Preached in the Gorbals this afternoon and 
exceeded. Oh for self-command in the 
pulpit ! I was not satisfied with my sermon, 
and I fear, or rather I know and am sure, 
that personal distinction is one of my idols. 
Oh that I could bring it .out, O Lord, and 
slay it before thee. Preached to the magis- 
trates. Vanity, violent exertion prompted 
by vanity, — a preaching of self, -—a want 
of singleness of aim after the glory of God. 
O my heavenly Father, sweep away these 
corruptions, and enable me to struggle with 
them. . . . O my God, keep me humble 



182 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and regular and mindful of thee, and 
diligent in all that is obviously right." Thus 
keen and self-scrutinizing, all the sound of 
worldly applause had not drowned the still 
small voice, and in the retirement of his 
closet he pours forth the heartfelt suppli- 
cation, " Cleanse thou me from secret 
faults. Keep back thy servant from pre- 
sumptuous sins." 

One more phase of his ministerial life 
during these years of connection with the 
Tron church, and we must turn to other 
themes. What were, as far as could be 
judged by human observation, the results of 
his ministry? This "saving souls" was 
the point for which he labored, not the 
crowded houses, not the voice of praise and 
adulation by which he was so constantly 
surrounded. We read of him at a dinner- 
party, where the life and amusement which 
he had always brought with him were 
missed. He was silent and sad. As he 
walked slowly home with a friend, he is 
asked in a delicate and gentle manner the 
cause of his depression, and his simple 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



183 



answer is, " I am grieved in my mind." 
In the course of the conversation he again 
remarked : " I am doing no good ; God has 
not blessed and is not blessing my ministry 
here." Providentially, the friend could and 
did repeat a striking instance which had 
come to his own knowledge of a conversion 
under Dr. Chalmers' ministry. To this 
his reply was, " Ah, Mr. Wright, what 
blessed, what comforting news you give me. 
I knew it not, but it strengthens me, for 
really I was beginning to fail from the 
apprehension that I had not been acting 
according to the will of God in coming to 
your city." 

How many other souls were given to 
him as seals of his ministry he never knew 
here ; but now he is probably walking with 
many of them through the streets of the 
New Jerusalem, and from his lips are 
continually ascending the words of praise, 
ff Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy 
name, be all the glory." 



184 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

It will be very pleasant to turn for a 
short time from Dr. Chalmers as a public 
man to see him in his domestic life, for 
after all, though our interest and admiration 
attach most naturally to what the world 
saw and felt, our sympathy and affection are 
with the man at home. Wearied and per- 
plexed by the many and difficult duties of 
his station, we find Dr. Chalmers continu- 
ally leaving Glasgow for the rest and quiet of 
his childhood home at Anstruther. Thither 
he goes, taking with him his piety and his 
filial love, and endeavoring to leave behind 
him all the bustle and business of his minis- 
terial life. In 1818 his father, now an old 
man, seemed to be loosening rapidly his 
hold on life. Dr. Chalmers wished to make 
these last days serene and happy, and 
therefore proposed to send to him those who 
have made his own home so cheerful, — 
Mrs. Chalmers, with her efficient, energetic 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



185 



domestic management, and those children 
so dear to every grandparent. He was too 
unselfish to reflect how solitary it would 
make his own home. But he wrote con- 
stantly, and it is from these letters to his 
wife that much valuable information has 
been gathered. We shall only extract such 
as relates to his home affairs. 

His attachment to his wife is nowhere 
more strongly shown than in the detailed 
account which he gives her of every 
day's occurrences ; not the smallest thing 
seems to escape him. He writes her with 
whom he breakfasted, dined, and took tea ; 
what time he went to bed, and what time 
he awoke ; when he took his daily sleep, 
and how long it occupied. What sermons 
he had written, and for what congregation ; 
what books he had read, what visitors en- 
tertained, and even what he had supplied 
for the table. Mixed with these things are 
free remarks upon his own mental and 
moral condition, and advice and entreaties 
with regard to her own religious state ; 
messages of love to the children, and 
lengthy records of pastoral work. 



186 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



He breaks off his journal to send this 
hasty note to his wife : " My very dearest 
Grace, — I had just filled one page of my 
journal this morning when I got your letter. 
I suspend it for the purpose of requesting 
your more frequent and particular accounts 
of my father. Your notice of him has 
indeed thrown me into very great tender- 
ness, and I want to know if you think I 
should come and that soon, to see him, if I 
were only to be away one Sunday. ... I 
cannot express the longing anxiety I feel 
toward him now that his earthly career 
appears to be drawing towards its termina- 
tion. . . . Do the kindest things to my 
dear father. I cannot express the feelings 
I have about him." 

Dr. Chalmers' presentiments with regard 
to his father seemed about to be verified, 
for a few days after the above letter he was 
hastily summoned to Anstruther. His 
father had an attack of paralysis, which 
threatened a speedy death. Writing to his 
sister, Mrs. Morton, he gives the following 
account of the scene, which presents him 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



187 



in the double capacity of son and min- 
ister. 

u My father has been quite inarticulate 
since Friday, and neither my brother nor 
Dr. Goodsir gives us any hope of his re- 
covery from this last attack. He was a 
sroocl deal moved when I first announced it 
to him. I pray with him occasionally, but 
shortly, lest he should be fatigued. . . . We 
find a whole chapter too much for him, and 
I have been selecting a few separate verses 
from the Bible, a few of which I read at a 
time. I asked him if he felt comfort in 
them, when he shook his head and said 
' Ay.' Ay and no are almost the only 
articulations he makes out. . . .We thought 
he said just now, ; I ? 11 maybe be better the 
morn.' ... I am most exquisitely gratified 
with the use of my very excellent wife upon 
this occasion, which has earned new titles 
to my affection by the exhibition of herself, 
and I indeed count her to be one of the 
greatest blessings ever conferred by Provi- 
dence,*' A few days later, he writes again 
to the same sister ; 



188 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



" The life of our reverend father was just 
lengthened out to half past two this morn- 
ing. He was permitted just to touch as it 
were one Sabbath more on earth, ere he 
was transported to that everlasting Sabbath, 
among the worshippers of which he is now 
sitting in blessedness and in glory. ... It 
is truly affecting when the thought of 
former Sabbaths in Anstruther presents 
itself to my mind, and I think of it as the 
day he loved, and how the ringing of bells 
was ever to him the note of joyful invita- 
tion to the house of God ; the sight of the 
people going to and from church, the inter- 
val — the every thing connected with the 
Sabbath, bring the whole of my father's 
habits in lively recollection before me, and 
call forth a fresh excitement of tenderness. 

" My dear father is lovely in death. There 
is all the mildness of heaven in his aged 
countenance. My mother bears up to the 
satisfaction of us all. She sits much in 
the room where the venerable remains are 
lying. . . . Oh that this affecting event did 
something more than solemnize for the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 189 



time; that it formed the turning point in 
the history of every one of us, so that all 
old things should be done away, and so 
that all things should become new." 

In the series of letters addressed on this 
occasion to his different friends, the same 
spirit of love and reverence is breathed. It 
is beautiful to see this great man coming 
away from all his greatness, and in this 
little village of Anstruther, becoming the 
gentle, affectionate son. " My father's 
death," he writes a female friend, "renders 
it proper and necessary for me to give the 
whole time of this excursion to his family. 
He died in peace, and 1 am confident is 
now in glory. He was a veteran Christian, 
who had walked in the good old w T ay of 
justification by the righteousness of Christ, 
and sanctification by the Spirit which is at 
his giving." Now that the grave had closed 
over this parent, all the particular charac- 
teristics of his character, mental and re- 
ligious, seemed to heighten and stand out 
in bold relief before the eyes of his son. He 
loved to recount them; and we can easily 



190 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



imagine him during the fortnight following 
the funeral which he spent at Anstruther, 
recalling one by one with fond love these 
traits, as if in the busy whirl of life as he 
was when away, he would then and there 
fix them forever. 

After his return to his pastoral duties, he 
writes to his sister : " There is something in 
the bustle of this place that is much calcu- 
lated to keep impressions of sensibility 
away from us. My father's death, however, 
hangs about me, and I am thrown into 
frequent and occasional fits of tenderness. 
I look towards Anstruther now with the 
feeling of its having sustained an irrepara- 
ble mutilation. I strive to profit by this 
dispensation, and what I feel to be the 
foremost lesson to be gathered from the 
remembrance of an example now solem- 
nized and consecrated by death, is a lesson 
of meek and enduring patience under the 
wrongs of this world's provocation. What 
an indulgent father he was to us all! How 
effusive his kindness and affection for his 
whole family ! How much, alas, in the w 7 ay 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 191 



of thoughtlessness and perverseness and 
impatience had he to suffer, and with what 
uncomplaining mildness he suffered it! Oh 
that God may perpetuate this lesson to my 
heart, and that from the image of my de- 
parted father, there may beam a holy and a 
peaceful influence at all times upon me ! 
I can write no more upon this subject, for 
in truth it is still a subject of deep and 
tender agitation.' 9 

Perhaps there will occur no better place 
than this to give a brief account of this 
home at Anstruther as it appeared to him 
when this "mutilation" took place. His 
son-in-law, Dr. Hanna, brings it to us with 
all the affection of a son and the pride and 
fondness of a devoted friend, in his descrip- 
tion of Dr. Chalmers' mother, years after 
this event. 

" Both parents shared equally the spirit 
of an inflexible moral integrity, both were 
scrupulously methodical in their general 
habits, and strictly punctual in the keeping 
of all their engagements. But yet the di- 
versity was great, and showed itself even in 



192 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



look and manner. Mr. Chalmers tall and 
commanding in presence, but bland and 
affable and easy of access, with a smile for 
every one, and a jest for those who liked 
it ; Mrs. Chalmers stoat and short, as kind 
in heart but more measured in courtesy, 
— of a peculiarly firm and steady gait, 
and almost undeviatingly rectilineal in all 
her motions. Mr. Chalmers was social in 
his feelings and habits, a lover of gentle 
glee, a humorist himself, and a hearty rel- 
isher of all mirthful tales. This love of 
humor was shared by many of his children, 
but it was wholly wanting in their mother. 
The family at Anstruther were often in a 
roar of merriment, but Mrs. Chalmers re- 
mained unmoved. If, however, she had 
less w 7 it than her husband, she had more 
practical wisdom ; if less fitted to win love 
and reverence, she was more fitted to com- 
mand obedience and respect; if her temper 
was less mild and amiable, her sense of the 
true and right was so strong, and carried 
into action with such unwavering resolution, 
that she often stood firm when he would cer- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 193 

tainly have given way. . . . She had not 
lived many years with a husband of such 
simple and devoted piety till she was led to 
the same fountain of peace and hope out 
of which he drew so largely. ... It was 
her rule, as she herself announces (and she 
never had a rule which she did not execute), 
that whenever told of any thing that a 
neighbor had said or done amiss, she 
instantly put on her bonnet, and went at 
once to the person and told what had been 
said, and told who said it, and asked if it 
were true." To her, her husband's death 
was a most heavy bereavement; and it 
is a comfort to see with what fine feeling 
her son Dr. Chalmers constantly remem- 
bered her, writing to her in the most affec- 
tionate and filial manner. 

" I hope," he writes, " you will at all times 
apply by letter in every case of duty or diffi- 
culty, when my presence is required." Again : 
" I do indeed feel a more tender relationship 
to Anstruther than ever; and though my 
father's death has broken one tie with the 
place, yet your solitude has bound the 
13 



194 LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



other tie more closely than before. ... It 
delights me to perceive that you have so 
much comfort after the desolating stroke that 
has been inflicted upon you, and that God 
has been pleased to mingle so much enjoy- 
ment with a lot darkened by one of the 
heaviest of all temporal calamities." 

"We shall close this chapter with an 
anecdote illustrative of the regularity and 
precision of the home circle. 

" An aunt of Mr. Chalmers while living 
in the house appearing one morning too 
late at breakfast, and well knowing what 
awaited her if she exposed herself defence- 
less to the storm, thus managed to avert it. 
1 Oh, Mr. Chalmer?! ' she exclaimed, as 
she entered the room, ' I had such a strange 
dream last night. I dreampt that you 
were dead ! 5 6 Indeed,' said Mr. Chalmers, 
quite arrested by an announcement which 
bore so directly upon his future history ; ' and 
I dreampt,' she continued, i that the funeral 
day was named, and the funeral hour was 
fixed, and the funeral cards were written, 
and the day came, and the folks came, but 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS 



195 



what do you think happened ? why. the 
clock had scarce done chapping (striking) 
twelve, which had been the hour named in 
the card, when a loud knocking was heard 
within the coffin, and a voice gay, per- 
emptory, and ill-pleased like, came out of 
it, saying, " Twelves 's chappit, and ye 're no 
liftin. 3 M Mr. Chalmers was himself too 
great a humorist not to relish a joke so 
quickly and cleverly contrived, and in the 
hearty laugh which followed, the ingen- 
ious culprit felt that she had accomplished 
more than an escape/' 



CHAPTER XIV. 

u I THINK it right to state," said Dr. Chal- 
mers, " that my great inducement to the 
acceptance of the parish of St. John's was 
my hope thereby to obtain a separate and 
independent management of the poor, which 
I felt it extremely difficult to obtain in my 



196 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



former parish, from the way in which we 
were dovetailed and implicated with a 
number of distinct bodies." This, ten years 
after the separation took place, was Dr. 
Chalmers' own account of the motives which 
prompted him to leave the Tron church for 
the new church of St. John in Glasgow. 
Soon after his return to Glasgow after his 
father's decease, he was elected by the 
magistrates and town council to be min- 
ister of this new church, then in the process 
of erection. This ministry had in itself 
nothing to tempt him. The congregation 
was almost entirely composed of operatives, 
and the new parish was to contain a popu- 
lation of more than ten thousand. 

To one who judged only from external 
appearances, no reason for the transfer could 
be seen ; but to Dr. Chalmers it promised a 
field for carrying out his favorite plans and 
wishes with regard to the poor. The 
amelioration of their condition had now 
become to him the ruling motive for exer- 
tion. Still, his work in the Tron church 
was not as yet finished, and with his char- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 197 



acteristic thoroughness he set himself to 
accomplish it with double assiduity. "I 
have now preached," he writes a friend, 
u - twenty-nine Sabbaths without intermis- 
sion in the Tron church, and that without a 
stated assistant, though I have occasionally 
got assistance for half a day." A few months 
later he writes again : " This Sabbath being 
the thirtieth, is the last of my connection 
with the Tron church, and as the church of 
St. John is not yet ready for me, I am 
counting upon the interval of a good many 
weeks, during which I propose to expa- 
tiate among my friends in the country." 
Accordingly he left Glasgow, and, after a 
few visits to his friends, settled down in 
Anstruther, to comfort his mother, and 
mature the extensive plans for good con- 
nected with St. John's parish. 

H My mother," he writes Mrs. Chalmers 
from there. " I think much altered. A^e 
has imprinted its marks upon her far more 
strikingly and abundantly than I had before 
noticed." Again : " Yesterday night I wrote 
to Mr. Parker, and am using every influence 



198 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



to obtain my favorite arrangements for the 
parish of St. John. My mother and I sort 
famously. She loves solitude, and so do I. 
She is deafer than I ever recollect, but there 
is a simplicity in having only one deaf 
person to manage. It is when you have 
half a dozen to carry along with you that 
the matter becomes inextricable ; and when, 
in addition to the passive obstacle of mere 
deafness, there is also an obtruding and 
active misconception, then it is indeed a 
trial which, in a small way, is the heaviest I 
ever was exposed to. . . . Anstruther I like 
better than all our retreats, and Mr. Gordon 
is a great fill-up. The true enjoyment of 
solitude is having one person as fond of it 
as yourself, and with whom you can oc- 
cupy an unemployed hour just when you 
like and your business is over." 

But this pleasant resting time was des- 
tined to be somewhat rudely interrupted by 
the voice of fault-finding, — a voice which 
even the holiest and most active life can 
never wholly still. 

Reports were rife, that, while Dr. Chal- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



199 



mers was openly engaged to the parish of 
St. John, he was in secret endeavoring to 
obtain an appointment to a vacant pro- 
fessorship in St. Andrew's college. The 
arrangements which he set his heart upon 
making for the poor met with many and 
unexpected obstacles. At this juncture he 
writes his wife : " For some time since 1 
came to Anstmther has my peace been a 
little broken in upon. If I do not get my 
arrangements, it will become a serious 
question with me if I shall remain at St. 
John ; certainly I ought not, if there be an 
impression on the part of those among 
wdiom I labor of my having acted unwor- 
thily in the matter. The public at large I 
hope I care not for ; but if my own people, 
and especially my own agency, shall have 
their minds infected by the rumors which 
are now flying, there is either an entire end 
to my usefulness, or that usefulness may be 
easily made greater elsewhere.' 5 

From this unpleasant condition he was, 
however, soon relieved, by a letter from his 
friend, Mr. Colliers, in which he was most 



200 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



cordially assured of the hearty cooperation 
of his new parish in all measures which he 
should see best to adopt. After the recep- 
tion of this, Mr. Chalmers returned imme- 
diately to Glasgow ; and, as the church of 
St. John was not yet finished, set himself 
diligently about the different charitable or- 
ganizations. 

We shall here state as briefly as possible 
what these organizations were. The state 
of society there and here is so entirely 
different, that we can only form a just esti- 
mate of his work in proportion as we can 
transfer ourselves from the well-cared for 
population of our own cities to the densely 
crowded, ill-fed, ill-clothed, ignorant, and 
vicious human beings who swarm in every 
lane and alley of the cities of the old world. 

Dr. Chalmers' first great object was to 
have the funds which were collected by 
contribution at every service on the Sab- 
bath entirely at his own disposal. This 
accomplished, he chose to assist him a 
number of deacons, whose office was in 
some respects very like that of the deacons 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 201 



in our own churches. Of these person- 
ages he seemed to feel an especial care. 
Writing to his wife, he says : " My great 
and engrossing anxiety is, that my deacon- 
ships are in an entire heart and spirit for 
the functions that await them." Their 
functions we give briefly, in Dr. Chalmers' 
own words : " When one applies for ad- 
mission through his deacon upon our funds, 
the first thing to be inquired into is, if there 
is any kind of work that he can yet do, so 
to keep him altogether off, or to make a par- 
tial allowance serve for his necessities ; the 
second, what his relatives and friends are 
willing to do for him ; the third, whether he 
is a hearer in any dissenting place of wor- 
ship, and whether its session will contribute 
to his relief. . . . Then there must be a strict 
ascertainment of his term of residence in 
Glasgow, and whether he be yet on the 
funds of the town hospital, or is obtaining 
relief from any other parish. ... Be kind 
and courteous while firm in your investi- 
gations about them, and just in proportion 
to the care with which you investigate will 



202 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



be the rarity of the applications which will 
be made to you. The scrutiny to which 
each case was subjected was patiently, 
minutely, and most searchingly conducted. 
It was soon perceived, that the very last 
thing which a deacon would allow was that 
any family in the parish should sink into 
the degraded condition of being chargeable 
on parish funds. The drunken were told 
to give up their drunkenness ; the idle were 
told to set instantly to work, and if they 
complained that work could not be gotten 
by kindly application to employers, they 
were helped to obtain it ; the improvident 
were warned, that if, with such sources of 
income as they had or might have, they 
chose to squander and bring themselves to 
want, they must just bear the misery of 
their own procuring. A vast number of 
the primary applications melted into noth- 
ing under the pressure of a searching inves- 
tigation." 

Some anecdotes of the deceptions which 
were attempted to be practised, remind us 
of our own less vigilantly detected decep- 
tions. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 203 



A poor woman in tears applied to a 
deacon for money with which to bury a 
grown up daughter. He refused, but said 
he would call and make inquiries. She 
came on the following day, — he sent a 
young man home with her to see the corpse, 
but the woman contrived to lose herself in 
the crowd on her way thither. 

Another woman applied for help to bury 
a dead husband, who was found not only 
to be alive, but able to work. 

It was a part of Dr. Chalmers' policy, and 
one which showed not only his knowledge 
of human nature but his strong desire that 
it should appear in its best and holiest form, 
that, whenever the poor could be aided by 
their friends or relations, to allow them to 
do it without any interference on the part 
of the deacons. Several instances of this 
are related with his own comments. 

A mother and daughter were both sick 
with cancers in one room. So unusual and 
distressing a case could easily have wrought 
upon the sympathies of all to whom it was 
made known, and abundant relief have 



204 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



been obtained ; but Dr. Chalmers wished to 
see it performing its mission for good 
among the poor. The sick were abun- 
dantly supplied with every necessary " food, 
service, and cordials" by their neighbors; 
and of this Dr. Chalmers says : " Were it 
right that any legal charity should arrest a 
process so beautiful, I never during my 
whole residence in Glasgow knew a single 
instance of distress which was not followed 
up by the most timely forthgoings of aid 
and sympathy from the neighbors. I re- 
member going into one of the deepest and 
most wretched recesses in all Glasgow, 
where a very appalling case of distress met 
my observation, — that of a widow whose 
two grown up children had died within a 
day or two of each other. I remember 
distinctly seeing both of their corpses on 
the same table ; it was in my own parish. 
I was quite sure that such a case could not 
escape the observation of the neighbors. I 
always liked to see what amount of kind- 
ness came forth spontaneously on such 
occasions, and I was very much gratified to 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



205 



learn a few days after that the immediate 
neighbors occupying that little alley or 
court laid together their little contributions, 
and got her safely over her Martinmas diffi- 
culties. I never found it otherwise." 

Personal inspection into the situation 
of the poor — into their character — their 
wants — their ability to meet them, and the 
actual outlay of money required to relieve 
them, seems to have been the secret of the 
success which attended these organizations. 
Three hours a month was on an average all 
the time which the deacons were required 
to give faithfully to their work. The 
efficiency and energy of the head mind 
pervaded the whole. The condition of the 
poor, in the three years and nine months 
during which Dr. Chalmers personally pre- 
sided over them, was materially changed. 
"With the small sum of eighty pounds 
(four hundred dollars), the pauperism of 
ten thousand people was cared for, and, in 
an investigation made by the English Poor 
Law Commissioners, the writer of the 
report says : " This system has been at- 



206 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 

tended with the most triumphant success ; 
it is now in perfect operation, and not a 
doubt is expressed by its managers of its 
continuing to be so." 

The state of the poor in his congregation 
being now adjusted in a manner which 
made it easy of inspection and control, 
Dr. Chalmers turned his attention to what 
he considered of even more importance, 
though its necessities were not so apparent, 
— the education of the young. The same 
system of Sabbath school instruction which 
he had introduced with such entire success 
in the Tron church, was enlarged and 
continued here, — still this did not meet the 
wants of the children ; and, after much care- 
ful investigation, Dr. Chalmers says to a 
meeting of his own parishioners : " There are 
many who have been two or three quarters 
at school, and have even got on as far as 
the Bible ; but when I come to examine 
them I am struck with their slovenly and 
imperfect mode of reading, obliged as they 
are to stop and to spell and to blunder on 
their way through every verse, in such a 



LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS, 



207 



manner as to make it palpable to those 
who hear them, that it had been very little 
worse for them though they had never been 
at school at all. Now, be assured that 
those who cannot read with fluency and 
readiness to the satisfaction of others, can- 
not read with any satisfaction or any real 
understanding of what they do read to 
themselves. They may go through the 
form of reading their Bibles, but I am sure 
they do not understand them ; and what is 
this to say, but that the Bible is a sealed 
book to them, — that they want the key by 
which it is opened/ 5 

The very day after the new church teas 
opened, some leading members formed an 
education committee, and resolved : " That 
there should, in the first instance and as soon 
as possible, be raised by subscription a sum 
of money deemed adequate to the erection 
of one fabric, to include two school-houses 
and two teachers' houses, which, when 
completed, shall in all time hereafter be 
exclusively occupied for the use and benefit 
of the parish of St. John." With his usual 



208 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



generosity, Dr. Chalmers headed the sub- 
scription with the sum of five hundred 
dollars ; five other gentlemen put their 
names down for the same amount, and, 
before a fortnight had passed, six thousand 
dollars had been easily raised. The site 
for the building was chosen. It happened 
to be already belonging to an educational 
corporation. In his visit to the president 
of the college, Dr. Chalmers found him 
demurring about the propriety of the new 
idea, and yet he said, " We have been 
talking twenty years of establishing paro- 
chial schools in Glasgow." 

" Yes," answered Dr. Chalmers, " but 
how many more years did you intend to 
talk about it ? Now we are going to do the 
thing, not to talk about it ; and so you 
must e'en let the price be as moderate as 
possible, seeing that we are going to take 
the labor of talking and projecting entirely 
oft' your hands." In this kindly, genial way 
Dr. Chalmers generally was able to carry 
his point; the ground was bought, the 
buildings erected, the teachers chosen, and, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



209 



early in July of 1820, were ready for occu- 
pation. 

" In less than a month after they were 
opened," states Dr. Chalmers to his com- 
mittee, "the schools are already crowded 
to such excess that the teachers have been 
obliged to teach two day classes instead of 
one, and that altogether the number of 
scholars accommodated far exceeded the 
powers of the teachers to do justice to, 
while many could not be admitted who 
had applied." There must, therefore, be 
another building in another district, and 
another school gathered there. A fresh 
application was repaid by a fresh subscrip- 
tion ; and within two years from his settle- 
ment in the parish of St. John, two build- 
ings had been erected, two schools organ- 
ized, four efficient teachers employed, and 
419 scholars were receiving a superior edu- 
cation at very moderate terms. "Whatever 
Dr. Chalmers did he did with his whole 
heart, and no other reason need be given 
for his general success. 

To these schools he devoted much time, 
11 



210 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and his personal interest extended to every 
individual connected with them. The fol- 
lowing account of his connection with them, 
given by one of his teachers, is full of in- 
terest. 

" His visits to my school were almost 
daily, and of the most friendly description. 
In all states of weather and in every frame 
of mind he was there, depositing himself in 
his usual chair, his countenance relaxing 
into his wonted smiles as he recognized the 
children of the working class. Again and 
again looking round on them from his seat, 
his eye beaming with peculiar tenderness, 
he has exclaimed, ' I cannot tell you how 
my heart warms to these barefooted chil- 
dren.' One day, after sitting longer than 
usual, he left, saying, ' I expected to meet 
Major Woodward and his lady here. Be 
sure, should they call, to tell them these are 
the children of our working classes ; they 
form so striking a contrast to the sight they 
are accustomed to see in Ireland.' Some- 
times he would enter the school buoyant 
and congratulatory, the Bishop of or 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 211 



Lord and Lady , developing to his 

visitors this or that other feature of his 
parochial system, and generally concluding 
with the request, ' Now let us hear one 
class read a portion before we go.' I may 
add, that he never once interfered in the 
slightest degree in the management of the 
classes. . . . I might record several instances 
of his goodness and condescension, as mani- 
fested in the many friendly visits he paid 
to my family. Early in the week following 
my appointment I received my first private 
call. One circumstance occurred during 
the visit, which I still remember most viv- 
idly. One of my children had been pre- 
sented with a pair of guinea-pigs. These 
had found their way into the apartment 
where we were sitting, and ran about in all 
directions. I could have wished to turn 
them out, but had not the power to rise 
from my chair. I could have seen them at 
Jericho. He soon observed them, followed 
them with his eye as they now retreated 
under his chair, and again ventured out 
into his presence ; he even changed the 



212 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



position of his feet to give them scope. 
That same kindly eye, one glance of which 
we all loved so much in after-life to catch, 
beamed only the more warmly as the crea- 
tures frisked in greater confidence around 
him. It was to me an omen of good. He 
who could enjoy thus the innocent gambols 
of these guinea-pigs could not fail to be 
accessible for good when occasion required. 
It was the first flush of that largeness of 
heart which afterward appeared in all I 
ever heard him say or saw him do." 

Dr. Chalmers was anxious to have it 
understood, that these schools were not 
charity schools ; the very word charity 
seems to have been one which he always 
avoided. He considered it in its thought- 
less administration as one of the most 
fruitful sources of pauperism, and he would 
have no such taint cling to his favorite 
project. He wished the children of the 
rich as well as those of the poor to become 
members of his school, giving the same 
advantages to all, and charging the same 
remuneration for teaching. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 213 



" The great peculiarity of these schools," 
he says, " is that the education is so cheap 
as that the poor may pay, and at the same 
time it is so good that the rich may re- 
ceive." Confined strictly to parish limits, — 
no matter how pressing the request, — no 
child was received who did not belong to 
St. John ; and at the end of his four years' 
connection with that church, he left be- 
hind him the means and facilities for giving 
at a very moderate rate a superior educa- 
tion to no less than 793 children out of a 
population of ten thousand souls. In this 
direct way, he reached and elevated that 
large and important class whose interests 
always lay so near his great heart, and of 
whom he says, " It is to confer a truer dig- 
nity upon each than if the crown of an 
earthly potentate were bestowed upon him. 
It is to pour the stores of knowledge into 
his understanding, and more especially of 
that sacred knowledge by the possession of 
which he becomes rich in faith, and heir of 
that kingdom which God has prepared for 
those who love him/ 5 



214 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Soon after Dr. Chalmers' settlement over 
the parish of St. John, Mrs. Chalmers was 
called away from Glasgow by the sickness 
of his brother, and in a letter written during 
that period from him to her we have the 
following particular account of his daily 
life. His enterprise and boundless energy 
will speak for itself without any comments. 

" My ever dearest Grace : I have been so 
much occupied these ten days that I have 
not been able to put pen to paper. . . . 
As it is, I spend four days a week visiting 
the people in company with the agent of the 
various districts over which I expatiate. I 
last week overtook between seven hundred 
and eight hundred people, and had great 
pleasure in the movement. This I am gen- 
erally done with in the forenoon, and then 
dine either in the vestry or in a friend's 
house. In addition to this, I have an 
agency tea every night excepting yester- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 215 



night, and in a few evenings more I expect 
to overtake the whole agency of my parish. 

" At nine, I go out to family worship in 
some house belonging to the district of my 
present residence. ... I furthermore have 
an address every Friday night to the people 
of my vicinity in the Calton Lancasterian 
school-room, and a weekly address will be 
necessary for each of the four weeks in St. 
John's church, to the people whom I have 
gone over in Tegular visitation. Add to all 
of this the missionary monthly meeting held 
yesternight, and you will find, that, without 
one particle of study, I am in full occupa- 
tion. I study only on the Fridays and 
Saturdays. In spite of all I have done, I 
have had many interruptions. Going to 
Mrs. Woods' one day for papers connected 
with Mr. Ballardie's affairs ; a meeting of 
the Sunday School Society another ; the 
Presbytery a third ; my Thursday's sermon 
a fourth ; a calling on stamp-offices and 
banks a fifth ; a meeting of session the 
sixth ; and lastly, another series of measures 
to originate for a second fabric to be raised 



216 LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



by a different operation over all the sitters 
in the parish of St. John. . . . My paro- 
chial operations are now at their most 
interesting crisis, and I do not feel that 
there is any church or congregation in 
Scotland that should tempt me to abandon 
them." 

It will very easily be understood, that no 
human energy could for a long time con- 
duct all these complicated operations alone ; 
and at length Dr. Chalmers began to fee], 
that, complete as his separate schemes were 
and easily as they worked, he must have 
aid. His choice fell upon the Rev. Edward 
Irving, a young man of decided but eccen- 
tric genius. 

At the time of his election to fill this 
prominent and important place, Mr. Irving 
says of himself, that, "rejected by the 
living, he was conversing with the dead." 
Finding neither place nor occupation in 
Scotland, he was preparing for the service 
of a foreign missionary ; but Dr. Chalmers' 
clear insight into human nature separated 
the faults of manner from the inherent 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



217 



excellence and ability of the man, and he 
found in him, during the two years which 
followed, an efficient and faithful cooper- 
ator in every good word and work. There 
were four public services on the Sabbath, 
— three in St. John's church, and one in 
the school-house at the eastern end of the 
parish. These they shared between them. 
Dr. Chalmers commenced a series of lec- 
tures upon Romans ; Mr. Irving one on 
St. Luke. They shared also the household 
visitations, and Mr. Irving proved himself 
specially useful in this department. We 
read of him, that " his commanding 
presence, his manly bearing, his vigorous 
intellect, and, above all, his tender and most 
generous sympathies, melted the hearts of 
the people under him, and second only to 
that which his more illustrious colleague 
possessed was the parochial influence which 
after a few months' visitation, he gained 
and most fruitfully exercised." 

At the frequent weekly meetings, or, as 
they were termed, the undress congregation, 
were exhibitions which showed more plainly 



21S 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



than almost any thing else the character 
and influence of the pastorate of St. John's. 
Sometimes in a workshop, sometimes in 
a mill, not unfrequentLy in the kitchen of 
some poor member of his congregation, 
Dr. Chalmers delighted to call together 
those who were not in the habit of attend- 
ing divine service. There was something 
in the hard upturned face. — the coarse, 
often grotesque clothing, which roused and 
interested the pastor more than the refined 
congregations of the elite, with whom his 
growing fame as a preacher filled the large 
church of St. John on every Sabbath. One 
of his friends who was in the habit of ac- 
companying him frequently to these meet- 
ings, says of them, " That no burst of ora- 
tory which rolled over admiring thousands 
in the Tron church or in St. John, ever 
equalled in all the highest qualities of elo- 
quence, many of the premeditated but 
unwritten addresses, in which, free from all 
restraint and intent upon the one object of 
winning souls to the Saviour, that heart, 
which glowed with such intense desires for 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 219 



the present and eternal welfare of the 
working classes, unbosomed in the midst of 
them all the fulness of its Christian sympa- 
thies." 

Dividing the large parish of St. John 
in twenty-five districts, with from sixty to 
one hundred families in each, he found he 
must have more aid than even Mr. Irving 
could afford ; he therefore chose from 
among the most pious of his people, men 
whom he called elders and deacons. The 
elders presided over the religious wants of 
these districts. With the business of the 
deacons the reader is already familiar ; they 
were strictly confined to temporal necessi- 
ties. 

His weekly school, — his forty or fifty 
Sabbath school teachers, with the adult 
classes, — and all the general interest and 
business of the church, not only of St. 
John in Glasgow but of the whole of 
Scotland, were to him objects which re- 
quired his minute personal knowledge 
and attention. One of his elders, looking 
back to the frequent meetings which Dr 



220 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



Chalmers held with them, says : " Our meet- 
ings were very delightful. I never saw any 
set of men who were so animated by one 
spirit, and whose zeal was so uniformly 
sustained. The Doctor was the very life of 
the whole, and every one felt himself as led 
on by him, committed to use his whole 
strength in the cause of that good God who 
had in his mercy sent us such a leader." 
The minutest details were under the pastors 
eye. Reports were constantly coming in 
from his various agents, and all received 
immediate personal attention. Dr. Hanna 
speaks of the " incessant shower of little 
billets, not one of which was despatched on 
a fruitless errand, which he was constantly 
discharging," to these agents. Every Mon- 
day morning he invited six or eight agents 
to an agency breakfast. Tea also was 
made the season for a pleasant personal 
intercourse ; and it is said that of all the 
persons whom he employed, every one was 
asked to meet him as often as once in six 
weeks. An instance of one of the social 
evenings as given by one of his teachers 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 221 



is too interesting to be omitted in the 
record of the pastor's life. Entering the 
school-room one morning, he said to Mr. 
Aiken, " My family, you are aware, are now 
at Kilhaldy, and as I wish to have an easy 
hour's chat with you and Mr. McGregor, 
will you just come up at three o'clock and 
have a steak with Mr. Irving and myself in 
the vestry ? " In company with Mr. Irving, 
he called as the schools were dismissing, 
and the two ministers and the two teachers 
proceeded to the vestry. The table was 
set, and John Graham, the beadle, offici- 
ated. Tales of the school and out of the 
school followed close upon each other. Dr. 
Chalmers gave this description of a call 
which he had received that morning: "I 
had a call from him" (Dr. Bell of India), 
" this morning. I was lying awake in my 
old woman's room (apartments which he 
had hired during the absence of his family), 
cogitating whether I should get up or not, 
when I heard a heavy step in the kitchen, 
and the door opening and the speaker 
entering, a rough voice exclaimed, ' Can 



222 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



this be the chamber of the great Dr. Chal- 
mers ? ' ' And what did you say,' asked 
Mr. Irving, who enjoyed exceedingly the 
ridiculousness of the question, with a quiet 
smile and inimitable archness, accompanied 
by frequent shutting of the eyelids. 6 1 
even told him,' said Dr. Chalmers, 1 that it 
was, and invited him to stay and take 
breakfast with me.' " 

Again, Mr. Irving seems to be the one 
ready with the funny story. Recounting his 
adventures in Dublin, he says : " I entered 
a miserable cabin, in which an old woman 
was smoking a pipe by the fire. Seeing 
three coarse portraits on the wall, I asked 
her who they were. 1 Sure that is St. Paul, 
on the right.' c And this? 3 'An' sure is n't that 
St. Peter?' < And he in the centre ? ' 'And 
don't you know Pat. Donelly the bruiser ? 
Sure everybody knows him. 3 " He describes 
also a visit to a Roman Catholic chapel, 
where he first saw high mass celebrated. 
" To escape observation he ensconced him- 
self behind a pillar where he stood. Every 
now and then, however, an old woman 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



223 



behind him pulled him by the skirts, saying, 
6 Sure you '11 go down on your knees ? ' 
1 And did you go down ? ' said one of the 
St. John elders, i I went down at last, 
both to please the old woman and to pre- 
vent the tails of my coat being torn off by 
the tugs she was constantly giving.'" 

Pastoral occupation like this, extending 
itself not only over the hours usually de- 
voted by ministers to their parishes, but 
into the privacy of the tea and break 
fast hour, may be supposed to be very 
exhausting both to mind and body ; so 
Dr. Chalmers at last found it. He had 
never been entirely satisfied, that mere pas- 
toral work alone was the highest object for 
him to accomplish. He knew that through 
the press he had already obtained a very 
decided and important influence ; while its 
effects were not so immediately visible, he 
felt sure that they were more extended, and 
would be vastly more permanent. The 
public were eagerly calling for the result of 
his educational and pauper systems, and 
for the reasons which had led him to adopt 



224 



LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



them. Now the entire machinery was 
fairly at work, he resolved to entrust it to 
other hands, and devote more of his time 
and strength to his pen. Calling together 
his elders and deacons, he announced to 
them this decision in the following words. 

" You know, that, whether to good or ill 
account, I have fallen into the habit of 
devoting a good deal of time and strength 
to the labors of authorship. ... I can 
assure you that I know not a more effect- 
ual method of making one's earthly exist- 
ence most painfully harassing and uncom- 
fortable, than by associating an excess of 
missionary with an excess of mental labor, 
than by centering in one person a jaded 
body with an exhausted spirit. One spe- 
cies of fatigue may be endured, but both 
together are insufferable ; and when both 
kinds are attempted in too high a degree, 
the quantity of both must be most essen- 
tially deteriorated. The question with me 
has long been which of the two I should 
surrender. ... I have resolved, in the choice 
of two evils, to devote myself more assidu- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 225 

ously than before to the cares and exertions 
of a mere student, and to abandon, to a 
great degree, the parish as an unprotected 
orphan to the care and charity of other 
laborers. I should like you, however, to 
understand what the precise extent is to 
which I shall find this abandonment to 
be necessary. I used to make regular 
monthly and quarterly rounds among all 
the sick and dying in the parish. I shall 
give up these rounds, but will go to any 
patient that requires my services. ... I 
shall also, if possible, continue to go through 
all the houses of the parish in two years, 
and invite each proportion to a week- 
day evening address ; and another very 
important approximation to the people, 
which I would never like to forget, as afford- 
ing the finest opportunity for Christian 
usefulness to the most interesting sort of 
parochial group that occurs in the annals 
of the parish, — I should like to make at- 
tendance on the parish funeral take the 
precedence over all other duties and en- 
gagements whatever." In conclusion, he 
15 



226 



LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



says : " I have had too much experience of 
the zeal and acceptableness of your ser- 
vices to doubt, my friends, that, if you ap- 
prove of the step which necessity has laid 
upon me, you will study each within his 
own sphere to render to the families a 
greatly overpassing compensation for the 
services which I withdraw from them." 

This may be considered the first step 
toward a great change, which was about 
taking place in Dr. Chalmers' life ; but we 
will not anticipate. In pursuance of his 
new resolutions, we find him breaking away 
from his people and commencing quite an 
extensive tour over England and Scotland, 
with the view of collecting facts in illustra- 
tion of the subject of pauperism as he pre- 
sented it in his printed reports. 

Rev. Mr. Irving, during the two years 
thus occupied by Dr. Chalmers, proved a 
most efficient and excellent co-worker ; but 
at the end of this time, having received a 
call to a pastorate of a church in London, 
both Dr. Chalmers and himself felt it his 
duty to go. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 227 



In London, he rose immediately to a rank 
which was never before occupied by a 
Presbyterian minister. His preaching, said 
Dr. Chalmers to his successor, " is like 
Italian music, appreciated only by connois- 
seurs." In his farewell oration he gave a 
eulogy upon his colleague, in which no 
epithet of respect or admiration was omit- 
ted. Dr. Chalmers, sitting among the con- 
gregation of St. John, was obliged to listen 
quietly to it all ; but an anecdote, illustra- 
tive both of the character of himself and 
Mrs. Chalmers, is told in connection 
with the printing of this discourse. The 
proof-sheets were to have been overlooked 
by him, but during his absence they fell 
under the eye of his wife. With much 
discretion she cut off the high-flown pane- 
gyric, and, reducing it within the bounds 
of good sense and propriety, sent it out 
into the world. A few months after, when 
Mr. Irving returned on a visit to Glasgow, 
he read with much surprise and anger the 
altered discourse, but was easily reconciled 
when he learned it was done by Mrs. 



228 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



Chalmers, of whom he was exceedingly 
fond. Speaking of this sermon to a friend, 
Dr. Chalmers said : " My dear sir, if that 
sermon of Mr. Irving's had been published 
just as he delivered it, what would the 
world have said both of us and of St. 
John's congregation, but that we were all 
members of a joint-stock puffing manu- 
factory ? " 

Mr. Irving was succeeded by Rev. Mr. 
Smyth, who became for some time a mem- 
ber of Dr. Chalmers' family. Having, now, 
taken a brief view of Dr. Chalmers in his 
outward life ; having seen him untiring and 
successful in all the duties of the pastor, the 
writer, and the preacher, — it is interesting 
and useful to turn to the inner or spiritual 
man, to see how, amid it all, the Christian 
shines triumphant, and how, turning away 
from the voice of worldly praise and renown, 
in the stillness and silence of his own heart, 
he seeks to catch that voice whose whis- 
per of approval he feels will alone assure 
him that he is not laboring in vain. We 
subjoin some few passages from letters and 
a journal, written at this time : 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



229 



" I am getting more into a bustled and 
arduous state, and must shrink back a little 
into my retirement. O my God! may I 
yield myself up unto thy service, and act- 
ually serve thee. . . . Had a parochial 
address in St. John's church in the evening. 
A little colded. I find how fatigue lays me 
open to the power of evil thoughts. Is not 
this a proof that my labors are not spiritual ? 
If they were so, would not a holy influence 
emanate from them ? O my God ! give 
me not to grieve thy spirit ! May I hold a 
busy transaction with him all the day long. 
. . . Attended the session, and had a mis- 
sionary meeting in church after it. O my 
God ! give me to enter more decisively on 
the business of my sanctification ! Do eman- 
cipate me wholly, Almighty Father; and, 
seeing that I have now had so much Chris- 
tianity in word, let me try and taste what 
sort of a thing Christianity is in power. . . . 
Gleams of comfort, all of which, to be true, 
must be shed upon me from higher and 
greater views than any which this world 
can open. O my God ! cause me to hold 



230 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



thee in constant remembrance ! Restore 
energy to me, but let me never lose sight of 
my creatureship and my worthlessness. 
May I be pure in heart, and so see God. 
Loose all my bonds, and may I serve 
thee with delight and thankfulness all my 
days." 

So humbly wrote and felt this great and 
good man. Is there no practical lesson to 
be derived from it for those of us who are 
not only doing less for the advancement of 
our Saviour's kingdom here, but also less 
to fit ourselves for the enjoyment of his 
kingdom above ? 



CHAPTER XVI. 

We have been at some pains thus far in 
our memoir to give the different portions 
of Dr. Chalmers' life as they were passing. 
The home and the public life, though in 
reality one and the same, are often so 
dissimilar as hardly to appear to belong to 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 231 



one individual ; and we cannot be said to 
acquire an accurate knowledge of the man, 
until all these diverse parts are brought in 
some measure together. We therefore 
turn from the beloved pastor and the world 
renowned preacher to the father, the hus- 
band, and the friend. So fully occupied 
does Dr. Chalmers appear at this period in 
public affairs, that we can only wonder how 
he could find any time for the pleasures of 
home; but he retained to the last the play- 
fulness of the child, the warm and active 
affections of his boyhood, with all the stem 
and grave characteristics of the man. In 
so far as we can, we shall let him tell the 
whole story of his home life. 

Soon after his settlement over St. John's 
church, during a temporary absence of his 
wife, when he was left alone in Glasgow 
with his children, now three girls, we 
find him writing thus to their mother. He 
had just returned from a short visit to 
Edinburgh. " The children were up stairs 
while I settled with the porter for my lug- 
gage, and went afterward to my own bed- 



232 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



room. I heard them come down in very 
gleesome style, but they had to wait in the 
lobby until I came out, which, when I did, 
they positively quivered and danced with 
pure gladness. I felt the cat and kitten 
principle most powerfully toward them, and 
spent a very joyous and thankful hour with 
them." 

About a week afterward, he writes : 
" Was greatly fashed with the restlessness 
of the bairns upon the sofa, — at one time 
pressing in between me and the back of it ; 
at another, standing upright and coming 
down suddenly upon me ; at a third, sitting 
upon its elevated border ; and, repeating this 
threatening position, forgetful of all my 
biddings upon the subject, and in fact 
putting me into a perfect fry with their 
almost incessant and ungovernable locomo- 
tion." 

Two of his parish — an elder and a 
deacon, — called one evening at Dr. Chal- 
mers' house to talk with him about paro- 
chial matters. They found him on the 
floor playing at bowls with his children. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 233 



" Come away, Mr. Heggie," he exclaimed, 
without changing his position, " you can tell 
us how this game ought to be played.'' 
Elder and deacon, minister and children, 
were all soon busy at the game together. 
" This is not the way/' said Mr. Thompson, 
" we used to play bowls in Galloway. " Come 
along, then," said Dr. Chalmers, " let us see 
what the Galloway plan is." And to it they 
set again with keener relish than ever, till 
Mrs. Chalmers at last said, " What a fine 
paragraph it will make for the Chronicle 
to-morrow morning, that Dr. Chalmers and 
one of his elders, and one of his deacons, 
were seen last night playing for a whole 
hour at marbles." " Well, really," said Dr. 
Chalmers, starting up, " it is too bad in us, 
gentlemen, we must stop." Two hours of 
instructive anduseful conversation followed, 
made none the less so by the manner in 
which they had been ushered in. 

Playful and affectionate with his chil- 
dren at home, we find ample proof, both in 
his letters and journal, that he did not for- 
get them when he was separated from them. 



234 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



The following letter, printed by him in the 
midst of most pressing avocations for his 
eldest daughter, then only six, will not be 
without interest for our young readers. 

" My dear Anne : I rode all the way from 
Glasgow to this place on the top of the 
coach. When I came here, I found Mr. 
Buchanan standing at the place where the 
coach stopped, and he was very glad to see 
me, and shook hands with me and took me 
to Mrs. Buchanan and Miss Taylor. I 
dined with them, and then went to another 
house, w 7 here I pay money to the person 
who lives in it for allowing me to have a 
room to myself. In this room I sleep and 
eat and study, and see all the people that 
call on me. There is a number of people 
from Glasgow and other places in this 
town, living in rooms of different houses, 
like myself. The thing which brings them 
here is a well of water about two miles off, 
of a very bad taste, but it is good for the 
health to drink it. That is the reason why 
I have come here, and I drink the water 
every day. I went out one morning to the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



235 



well, and there was a great number of 
ladies and gentlemen all drinking the water 
out of tumblers. But instead of going so 
far as the well every morning, I get the 
water brought to my room, and I drink 
six tumblers of it full every morning. 

* ; I began this letter on Saturday ; but I 
find it very slow work, and cannot do much 
at a time, so that it is now "Wednesday. I 
preached on Sunday at Lecropt. The 
church is so small, and the number of 
people was so great, that I had to preach out 
of doors. You know that in the Sauchope 
Hall road, the watchmen go into a kind of 
wooden presses ; well, papa got into one 
of these presses and preached to the people, 
who were standing or sitting on the grass. 

" I do not see Anne or Eliza or mamma. 
Yet I am often thinking of them, and 
love them much, and pray that we may all 
please God and meet in heaven. I am 
your earthly father, but God is your heav- 
enly Father; and he is always thinking of 
you and loves you, and wants you to be 
fit for seeing him in that happy and glo- 



i 



236 LITE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



rious place where Christ sitteth at his right 
hand. Papa has written you this letter to 
let you know how much he wishes you to 
be good and obedient to your parents and 
sorry for your faults, and desirous of be- 
coming better, being kind and respectful to 
all who are older than yourself. And so 
likewise has your Father in heaven written 
you a letter, a very large one. that has 
been printed and made into a book, the 
name of which you very well know; and 
what I want you to do with that book is to 
read it. and to do what it bids you. and to 
mind what it tells you. and to pray that 
God would enable you more and more to 
understand and to love it : for be assured, 
my dear Anne, that it is only by taking 
lessons from God and doing the will of 
God, that we can either please him in time 
or be happy with him in eternity. I am 
now to write the rest of this letter to 
mamma : but when she has done reading it, 
she will give it back to you and you will 
keep it for your own. Be a good girl your- 
self, and tell Eliza that papa bids her be a 
good girl also.*' 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



In another letter he writes : ; - Learn about 
Jesus Christ and love him, because he is 
your Saviour, and keep his commandments. 
Be very kind and ^ood to Eliza, and tell 
her that papa loves her very much.*' 

In all his letters to Mrs. Chalmers, we 
find frequent and affectionate mention of 
these children. " It is a good thing,*' he 
writes on one occasion of Anne, " to keep 
her mind in exercise, and I beg that you 
may give her every impression you can of 
the magnitude and sacredness of this topic 
(religion).'' Again : " Give a kiss to each 
of my dear girls. Oh, train them up in the 
fear of the Lord. Take the utmost care of 
Anne ; and oh, my dear, let us never forget 
that the care of souls is the one thing 
needful." 

In a letter from the Rev. Mr. Smyth, 
the assistant pastor who succeeded Mr. 
Irving, we have the following graphic 
pictures of his domestic life. " His chil- 
dren were young (at the time Mr. Smyth 
was a member of his family), but they were 
to him objects of daily and most affection- 



238 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



ate interest; he was playful with them, 
even to occasional romping. His smile of 
fatherly love was ever ready to encourage 
their approaches ; and when absent for a 
few weeks, he printed little letters for 
their acceptance." Of Mrs. Chalmers, to 
whom we must now turn, the same writer 
says : " She was in all respects a helpmeet 
for her distinguished husband. Possessed 
of talents decidedly superior, of large and 
varied information, of warm-hearted affec- 
tions, and, of what is infinitely better, en- 
lightened and decided piety, Mrs. Chal- 
mers commanded the esteem and the con- 
fidence of her family and friends. Her 
judgment was sound, calm, and compre- 
hensive. She possessed a tact and a deli- 
cacy of perception, which fitted her for 
being a wise and a faithful counsellor. 
Dr. Chalmers had unlimited confidence in 
her discretion. He felt that her coincidence 
with him in opinion or in plan was of 
great value. She strengthened his hands 
and encouraged his heart in every labor of 
love. Nor did she ever forget the limits of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 239 



a woman's sphere, -- exquisite feminine 
delicacy was united with great vigor and 
promptitude of mind. Habitually cheerful 
and happy, there was a sunshine of the 
soul, which even the clouds of affliction did 
not obscure. Her health frequently suffered ; 
but this trial served to bring out more fully 
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. 
Thoroughly conversant with Dr. Chalmers' 
views in regard to many exciting questions, 
she entered into his, enthusiastic defences 
and expositions of them with her whole 
heart. And with what gentle affection she 
poured a healing balm into the waters, 
when ruffled or in danger of being so, 
tendering some word in season, that bound 
up the wound which ignorance or envy had 
inflicted. . . . Her discernment of character 
was remarkable. As a wife, mother, mis- 
tress, friend, a disciple of him who was 
meek and lowly in spirit, few are better 
entitled to affection's warmest tribute." 

Writing of Mrs. Chalmers to his sister, 
Dr. Chalmers says : " I think her better 
than she has been these two years, and I 



240 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



am sure, that never could a kinder and 
gentler spirit have been provided for the 
solace of my companionship through life." 
Again : " One part of our system we derive 
much pleasure and improvement from; 
From dinner to tea I read aloud to Mrs. 
Chalmers, and I never wish for a single 
creature to be with us whose call would 
interrupt this process." 

It. would fill too many pages of our al- 
ready extended memoir should we attempt 
to copy the many affectionate and endear- 
ing messages and mentions of his wife, with 
which Dr. Chalmers fills his letters and 
journal. Every page bears testimony to her 
worth, to the strength and soundness of 
her character, and the tenderness which 
made her everywhere a favorite. Her 
quiet management of her domestic affairs 
shows no ordinary capacity. Dr. Chal- 
mers was very liberal in charities, so that 
sometimes the salary could not have been 
more than sufficient for his family expendi- 
tures with planning and economy ; and 
then his hospitality was unbounded. For 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 241 

years his agency breakfast and tea were 
almost daily, and his notoriety as a preacher 
brought a throng of visitors constantly to 
his house. Sometimes in his letters or his 
journal we find him complaining; but we 
may suppose it was only after some case of 
special provocation, for there was no dimi- 
nution to the stream which was constantly 
passing through his dwelling. Occasionally 
he narrates a ludicrous instance of perti- 
nacity. He writes of a lady, of whom he 
says : " I got so desperately tired of her 
incessant volubility that I said I would 
listen no longer, and left the drawing-room 
for my bed-room ; whither, however, she fol- 
lowed me, but I shut my door against her. 
. . . I am to have nothing to do with a 
set of cackling wives and old maids." 
Greatly teased one day by an old lady, who 
kept him listening for a long and at a very 
inconvenient time, he said to a friend after 
her departure, when describing the infliction 
from which he had just escaped: " And it 
would have been nothing if she had been 
saying to the purpose ; but it was a mere 
16 



242 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



gurgle of syllables" " I am quite ashamed 
of myself," we find him saying to Mrs; 
Chalmers, " I meet so many persons in the 
street whom we ought to have invited here 
long ago." 

Mrs. Chalmers, in her quiet way, made 
no reply to this speech, but brought to him 
in a week or two a list of those who had 
sat down to their table within this time. 
It showed that at breakfast, dinner, and 
supper, on almost every day but Sunday, 
different relays of guests had been received, 
and when the gross aggregate was exhib- 
ited to Dr. Chalmers, he himself was aston- 
ished. " Occasionally," says his biographer, 
" there have been three different rooms of 
people waiting for him, and when he issued 
from his retirement he had a cordial wel- 
come from them all. Let his hours of 
study be secured, and there was hardly any 
wearying of him by any succession of 
visitors, however numerous or varied." 

His good-nature, of course, exposed him 
sometimes to imposition, of which the 
following is an example: " When Dr. Chal- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 243 

mers was very busily engaged one morning 
in his study, a man entered, who at once 
propitiated him under the provocation of an 
unexpected interruption by telling him that 
he called under great distress of mind. ' Sit 
down, sir; be good enough to be seated,' 
said Dr. Chalmers, turning eagerly and full 
of interest from his writing-table. The 
visitor explained to him that he was troub- 
led with doubts about the divine origin of 
the Christian religion ; and, being kindly 
questioned as to what these were, he gave, 
among others, what is said in the Bible 
about Melchisedek being without father and 
mother, &c. Patiently and anxiously Dr. 
Chalmers sought to clear away each suc- 
cessive difficulty as it was stated. Ex- 
pressing himself as if greatly relieved in 
mind, and imagining that he had gained 
his end, 6 Doctor,' said the visitor, £ I am in 
great want of a little money at present, and 
perhaps you could help me in that way ? ' 
At once the object of his visit was seen. 
A perfect tornado of indignation burst upon 
the deceiver, driving him into a very quick 



244 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



retreat from the study to the street door ; 
these words escaping among others, ' It is 
too bad, — it is too bad, and to haul in 
your hypocrisy upon the shoulders of Mel- 
chisedek.' " 

Among his most devoted admirers was 
an old daft (insane) woman. Her mono- 
mania ran at first upon admiration of 
preachers generally, then it was Dr. Chal- 
mers exclusively ; and her singular fancy 
for him became very soon not only annoy- 
ing, but a subject of really " nervous terror" 
to the pastor. She would force herself to 
his carriage when he had ridden to church, 
and, seizing him by both hands, would 
express her affection in no very limited 
terms. She would, when prevented from 
coming near him by the bystanders, w r ait 
until he had entered the church ; then ex- 
pend her affection upon his horse, wiping 
the froth from its mouth with her hand- 
kerchief, and kissing the animal with much 
devotion. She used to force herself into 
church, and seat herself as near the min- 
ister as she could. At one time he did not 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 245 



perceive, her until ready to preach, then, 
turning to his sexton, he said with much 
decision, " John, I must be delivered con- 
clusively from that woman." She used 
herself to say, " that Mrs. Chalmers' folks 
said that she was his wife, but she kent 
better, and so did the Doctor himself." " At 
one time she was seized with a dread that 
he did not get enough to eat at home. 
Coming unexpectedly at the corner of the 
street, she said, 6 Come, Doctor, do come, 
and get a plate of porritch ; I hae fine meal 
the noo.' As he would not take the food 
she thought so necessary at her house, she 
resolved to carry it to him at home. One 
evening at Kensington Place, the servant, 
on opening the door, was surprised by a 
large round bundle covered with a red 
handkerchief being thrown into the lobby. 
On unwrapping it, it was found to contain 
oatmeal cakes and sheep's trotters, for the 
special sustentation of the minister. This 
annoyance became at last so great that 
Dr. Chalmers, when he encountered her in 
the streets, was known to rush into houses 



246 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



to avoid her, and in one case where this 
was done, the woman followed him to the 
house. He escaped through a back door, 
and was hardly gone when she, entering 
with a jug of curds and cream for him, 
would not be satisfied that he had escaped 
until she had been taken into every room 
in the house." 

Dr. Chalmers' intercourse with his broth- 
ers and sisters was very frequent. We 
find long letters from him to them, particu- 
larly to his sister Jane, his housekeeper in 
those early Kilmany days when his min- 
ister's life was only just commencing. 
These letters show much interest in her 
still. Every little incident of domestic life 
is commented upon with that simple earn- 
estness which always indicates true feeling. 
He joys in her joy, he weeps with and for 
her in her bereavements, and every letter — 
no matter what the occasion- — is replete 
with the most minute rules for the regula- 
tion of her religious life. We gather from 
these letters, that Mrs. Morton's piety was 
of that timid, self-depreciating cast, which, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS 



247 



perhaps more than any other type, requires 
extreme delicacy and judgment in its man- 
agement. So at one time we find her 
brother telling her that he has much less 
doubt of her piety than she has herself; and 
at another time, to M trust, then, in the 
midst of discouragements ; keep a deter- 
mined hold, while the billows of temptation 
pass over you. Say. 1 Though he slay me, 
yet will I trust in him, 3 and when ready to 
give way under the imagination that you 
are ready to perish, bethink yourself of the 
cross of Christ, and be assured it is utterly 
impossible that you should perish when thus 
employed." His letters to one of his 
brothers, who was an eccentric character, 
are equally filled with sound advice. Not 
a single one is given but the object of the 
first importance insisted upon is religion, as 
a practical, guiding principle. " May the 
roll of seasons (he writes to him) at length 
awaken us to true wisdom. There is a 
way of escape from the corrosions of this 
cheating and distressful world. I am sure, 
that, would we implicitly walk by the Bible, 



248 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



we should at length find ourselves in a way 
of pleasantness and in paths of peace. . . . 
May you have the returns of the season, 
and may a life of repentance and faith be 
followed by an endless felicity hereafter." 

The old home at Anstruther was now 
nearly desolated. Of the large and happy 
family who had once filled it, many were 
in their graves, and the remainder were 
scattered far and wide. The mother, old 
and infirm, occupied almost alone the fam- 
ily mansion. Every thing had changed, — 
every thing but the crested waves that 
curled and dashed as in those days when 
her boys sent out their little boats, mimic 
tempters of their strength. Now she could 
not see the white foam as she could then, 
nor hear the ceaseless, solemn dirge, which 
rose even above the children's merry shout; 
but it mattered not. Year after year, as 
these things grew more indistinct, that 
band of children seemed to return to those 
young home days. That solitary house 
was peopled with lifeful memories, — the 
deafened ear was not pained by its stillness, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 249 



— little feet ran about among its lonely 
rooms, — children's voices, the sweetest in 
the world because they were her own, 
called her by that dear, familiar name. 
Loving words, uttered by lips long since 
stilled, came gently back. Even the first 
lisping words, — -they were with her more 
than those of parting, for the meeting was 
near. We have no doubt that it was often 
a source of gratitude to her pious heart, 
that God, in her increasing natural infirmi- 
ties, was already preparing her for that 
other home. The fading eye could more 
clearly discern the sight that mortal eye 
hath not seen, and the dull ear could hear 
the sound to which mortal ear might never 
listen ; and of those joys her heart could 
more easily conceive when she remembered 
how many of her own peculiar treasures 
were gathered there. Separated as she 
was from her children who were still living, 
they seem to have been a source of comfort 
to her. Dr. Chalmers never forgot her. 

We find many letters which he wrote 
during these years of widowhood, and the 



250 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



record also of many visits to her. Writing 
to one of his brothers, he says : i; I shall 
have it in my power, I trust, to spend some 
time in Anstruther in the months of June 
and July, when I shall pay every attention 
to my mother's affairs, and do all I can to 
place matters on a secure and comfortable 
footing for her," Writing to his mother, he 
says: "I do indeed feel a more tender 
relationship to Anstruther than ever: and 
though my father's death has broken one 
tie in the place, still your solitude has 
bound the other tie more closely than 
before. . . . Let me know, if you can read 
my present letter (Dr. Chalmers was re- 
markable for his very illegible handwriting), 
for if you can, it will give me pleasure to 
know that I have made myself legible. I 
have made a particular effort, and I hope 
that I have succeeded in it. I think pretty 
well of it myself; but I am not the best 
judge of that matter. I am, my dear mother, 
yours most affectionately*" 

With all the pressure of parochial em- 
ployments, Dr. Chalmers could find time, 



LIIE OF THOMAS CHALMERS 



251 



not only to write his mother, but to take 
pains that it should be so legible as to 
make the reading of it easy to her. Here 
is a lesson never to be forgotten of that 
attention and deference to our parents, 
particularly if they are aged, with which no 
press of occupation need interfere. During 
a work which no other man has done 
before or since. Dr. Chalmers printed letters 
to his young child, and made a particular 
effort to write legibly to his old mother. 

i; I hope.*' he writes to her in another 
letter, "that you will at all times apply by 
letter in every case of duty or of difficulty, 
when my presence is required." 

We have already glanced at the pleasant 
private intercourse which Dr. Chalmers 
kept constantly up with his agency. Many 
interesting anecdotes are related of his at- 
tachment to his friends and interest in 
their occupation. Visiting a friend once, 
he discovered that a member of the family 
was very fond of botany. " With his usual 
warm interest.*' says his biographer, " in 
the pursuits of the young, he talked with 



252 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



her on that subject, and examined a flora 
which she had been collecting. One plant 
in the series was wanting, and he inquired 
why. On her telling him that she had not 
been able to find it, he said it was surely to 
be had in the neighborhood, and the sub- 
ject dropped for that evening. The next 
morning when the family assembled at 
prayers, Dr. Chalmers did not appear, and 
his bed-room was deserted. The family sat 
down to breakfast without him, nor was it 
until breakfast was half over that he came 
into the room, his hat in his hand, tired and 
heated from a long walk, but carrying with 
him the missing plant, which he presented 
to the young lady." His journal is filled 
with many of these pleasant records of this 
thoughtful friendship. 

There was one peculiarity of his familiar 
intercourse, which we must not allow to 
escape our observation. He was in the 
habit of indulging in long fits of abstraction, 
from which it seemed impossible to rouse 
him for any length of time. His most 
intimate friends knew this very well, and 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS 



generally left him at such times to follow 
out at his own pleasure whatever train of 
thought was absorbing him ; but to stran- 
gers it often seemed strange and wholly 
inexplicable. His countenance at such 
times assumed a blank look, and he was 
wholly unconscious of what was passing 
around him. His introduction to Lady 
Colquhoun is thus narrated. " Lady C. 
awaited his arrival with great anxiety. 
When, however, he was shown into the 
drawing-room after the first salutation was 
over, he sat perfectly silent, wearing his 
blank look. She tried a variety of subjects, 
but in vain, and he soon retired to his room. 
On coming down he apologized in the 
most amiable manner for his silence, con- 
fessing that a train of thought on the sub- 
ject on which he was writing had occurred 
to him, and he was terrified lest, if he en- 
tered into conversation, he should lose it 
before it was secured on paper." Hugh 
Miller gives a similar description of a sail 
with him in company with others. i; There 
were several members of our party who 



254 LITE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



attempted engaging the Doctor in conver- 
sation, but he was in no conversational 
mood. It would seem as if the words 
addressed to his ear failed at first to catch 
his attention, and that with a painful cour- 
tesy he had to gather up their meaning 
from the remaining echoes, and to reply to 
them doubtfully and monosyliabically, at 
the least possible expense of mind. His 
face bore meanwhile an air of dreamy en- 
joyment. He was busy evidently among 
the crags and bosky hollows, and would 
have enjoyed himself more had he been 
alone. In the middle of one noble precipice, 
that reared its tall, pine-crested brow more 
than a hundred yards overhead, there was 
a bush-covered shelf of considerable size, 
but wholly inaccessible ; for the rock dropped 
sheer into it from above, and then sunk 
perpendicularly from its outer edge to the 
beach below, and the insulated shelf in its 
green, inapproachable solitude had evi- 
dently caught his eye. 

" It was the scene, — I said, taking the di- 
rection of his eye for the antecedent of it, — 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



255 



of a sad tragedy during the times of the 
persecution of Charles. A renegade chap- 
lain, rather weak than wicked, threw him- 
self in a state of wild despair over the 
precipice above, and his body, intercepted 
in its fall by that shelf, lay unburied among 
the bushes for years afterwards, until it had 
bleached into a dried and whitened skele- 
ton. Even as late as the last age, the 
shelf continued to retain the name of the 
' Chaplain's Lair.' I found that my com- 
munications, chiming in with his train of 
cogitation at the time, caught both his ear 
and mind ; and his reply, though brief, was 
expressive of the gratification which its 
snatch of incident had conveyed. ... I 
saw the Doctor afterwards in a similar 
mood, when on a visit to him in Burntis- 
land in the following year. I marked, on 
approaching the shore in a boat, a solitary 
figure stationed on the sward-crested trap 
rock which juts into the sea immediately 
below the town ; and after the time spent 
in landing and walking round the spot, 
there was the solitary figure, still standing 



256 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



motionless as when first seen. It was 
Chalmers, — the same expression of dreamy- 
enjoyment impressed on his features as I 
had witnessed in the little skiff, and with 
his eyes fixed upon the sea and the oppo- 
site land." 

At other times, when his mind was not 
preoccupied, Dr. Chalmers was genial and 
hearty in all his intercourse. He was the 
life and soul of every company into which 
he entered, — now startling the company 
by a shrewd and cutting observation, — 
and now moving them all to laughter by 
the dry and irresistible humor which burst 
from him so unpremeditatedly. He con- 
stantly gave to those by whom he was 
surrounded the impression of being a 
strong, kind man. There was a reliability 
in all that he said and did, — a simple trust- 
fulness, which made him alike trusting and 
trusted. Even the little guinea-pigs stole 
out from their hiding-place to frolic around 
his feet; and the children of his parish, 
notwithstanding the natural Scotch rever- 
ence for the pastor, looked into his broad, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 257 



happy face, sure, if they deserved it, of 
finding an approbatory smile there. This 
domestic character of Dr. Chalmers cannot 
be too much dwelt upon. The union of 
the great and good, of public and private 
virtues, shows us to what perfection a Chris- 
tian may attain, and what an example he 
may set, which shall live long years after 
he is sleeping in his grave. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

In the month of January of the year 
1823, Dr. Chalmers summoned together the 
agency of St. John's parish. The char- 
acter of the summons left in their minds no 
doubt that something of importance was to 
be considered ; some few had a suspicion 
as to what it might be, but most had no 
intimation. Their surprise may therefore 
be imagined, when he announced to them 
his determination to leave their pastorship 
17 



253 



LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



for the place of Professor of Moral Philoso- 
phy in St Andrew's College. The reasons 
he assigned were briefly these. " The 
imperative consideration of his health, 
being exhausted by the many and compli- 
cated duties of his office. Second, a reason 
of conscience. The church was too large, 
it was to be divided, — a new church, 
called a chapel of ease, being already under 
way ; but even in that case his interests 
and attention had been of late so much 
occupied by objects of general philan- 
thropy, that he could not remain their 
pastor any longer without being a plural- 
ist" These reasons had been entirely 
satisfactory to him ; he hoped they would 
prove so to his agency also. There was 
nothing to be said. From the way in which 
Dr. Chalmers made the announcement, it 
was very evident that his own mind was 
entirely made up, and that no persuasion 
would avail to change it. 

Of course, this announcement was re- 
ceived by every different class of people with 
different sensations. All were more or less 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



259 



disappointed, some were chagrined, some 
cast upon the Doctor " imputations unjust 
and ungenerous." He heard and felt all, 
but his resolution was unshaken. He de- 
voted the months which were left him 
before the connection was dissolved, to 
bringing his plans to greater maturity, and 
especially to seeing the chapel of ease com- 
pleted. This chapel was to be paid for by 
subscription. Dr. Chalmers, of course, must 
be at the head of any such movement. He 
placed himself there, and, in May of 1823, 
the chapel was opened for worship. A 
new clergyman was ordained there, and 
for many years after his removal to St. 
Andrews, Dr. Chalmers used to visit Glas- 
gow, and occupy its pulpit himself. This 
was Dr. Chalmers' first movement in the 
church extension system, which afterwards 
occupied so much of his heart and time. 

It will be remembered by our readers, that 
immediately after Dr. Chalmers' settlement 
in Glasgow, he became very much inter- 
ested in a young parishioner, Mr. Thomas 
Smith. The particulars of his conversion 



260 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and death will be remembered also. It is 
somewhat singular, that, among the most 
interesting occurrences during the close of 
his ministry, was another conversion and 
death, though of a dissimilar nature. We 
give the narrative in Dr. Hanna's words. 
" The man had been the only son of a 
pious mother, who was a widow. In his 
boyhood he had been apprenticed to a man 
who was an infidel, and who with about 
twenty men under him had sown so sedu- 
lously his own principles among them, that 
every one had been seduced into unbelief. 
Among the rest, this unprotected widow's 
son fell a victim to his arts, and when his 
mother saw him married to his master's 
daughter, who was as bold an unbeliever 
as her father, and when she heard him 
blaspheme that holy name in which she 
trusted, it was too much for her to bear; 
deprived of reason, she died in an asylum 
of lunatics. In the course of years, and 
when his only son was grown up, consump- 
tion seized upon him. The near look at 
eternity, and perhaps the remembrance of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



261 



his mother's instruction and prayers, threw 
him into spiritual distress. A minister was 
sent for, who attempted to reason with him, 
but he 4 was too deep,' and the wound 
remained unhealed. It so happened that he 
was living at this time in a district in St. 
John's parish assigned to Mr. John Wilson, 
one of the most beloved and valued of 
Dr. Chalmers' elders, who soon brought his 
minister to see the dying man. The sim- 
plicity, the earnestness, the sympathy dis- 
played by Dr. Chalmers, won the man's 
confidence, and it was not long till he 
related the history of his unbelief. Weekly, 
during nearly three months, the minister's 
visits were repeated. The instructions 
given and the prayers offered at the bedside 
were blessed ; a sinner was turned from the 
error of his ways, and a soul saved from 
death. Very shortly before his death, 
Chalmers visited this man. Both felt that 
this interview was to be the last. i Doctor,' 
said he, lifting his Bible off from the bed 
on which it lay, ' will you take this book 
from me as a token of my inexpressible 



262 



LIFE OP THOMAS CHALMERS. 



gratitude?' 1 No, sir/ said Dr. Chalmers 
after a momeftt's hesitation. 1 Nbj sir; this 
is far too precious a legacy to be put past 
your own son. Give it to your boy. 3 
The dying man obeyed his instructors last 
advice. He gathered up his remaining 
strength of body and mind, and wrote some 
lines, which Dr. Chalmers quoted in a dis- 
course on death-bed repentance, and hav- 
ing written them he laid his head upon his 
pillow and expired." 

These two conversions alone, had there, 
been no other fruits of his ministry, would 
have been to him crowns of rejoicing, and 
more than repaid him for the arduous toils 
and personal sacrifices of six years of min- 
isterial life in Glasgow. 

But many other instances of his imme- 
diate instrumentality, under God. are known 
and related by those who watched with 
intense interest the effect of this new kind 
of ministry upon a people ; and who shall 
be able to number all. until that day when 
Christ shall place them as gems in that 
starry crown. The influence of Dr. Chal- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 263 



mers' ministry in Glasgow is better told 
now than when he left, for years have 
had time to ripen the good seed, and to 
separate what his opposers then considered 
the tares from the wheat. We would 
briefly state, that at the time when his 
pastoral connections were dissolved, a very 
marked change had come over the whole 
state of the religious .world in Glasgow. 
From irreligion and infidelity being the 
prominent and most active influences, — 
religion, pure, meek, and undefiled, had 
begun to assert its claims ; the great and the 
rich who had despised the lowly Nazarene 
now sat at his feet, and were glad to learn 
of him. The old savor of covenanter as- 
ceticism, lingering in the nasal tone, pro- 
tracted prayers, and pharisaical righteous- 
ness, drove far away the refined and edu- 
cated. It needed a man like Dr. Chalmers, 
strong and upright, learned in all the learn- 
ing of the schools, replete with eloquence, 
and bringing to his aid the refinements of 
the classic scholar, to recommend a faith 
whose glories had perhaps been somewhat 



264 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



obscured by the uneducated affection which 
had clung to it strongly but noisily. Re- 
ligion, learning, and genius were again 
hand in hand. Dr. Chalmers' mission had 
been heard by the rich and great ; but it was 
not to these or for these that he himself 
felt he had been sent. To those poor, 
Christ's special legacy, he had come as 
never one had come before. He had res- 
cued from poverty and starvation, — he had 
fed and clothed, taught and preached, and 
prayed for and with them. The whole 
population had risen in the scale of being ; 
they were better here on earth, and their 
prospects had brightened even to embrac- 
ing that other home, where the weary are 
at rest. If the rich regretted a loss which 
they might with their advantages make up, 
what must have been the sad heart-sinking 
of those who had only tasted the full cup 
to see it dashed from them. These last 
few months of Dr. Chalmers' pastorate 
must have been filled with many deeply 
interesting scenes ; but we must hurry over 
them to the last sermon which he w 7 as to 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS* 



265 



preach as a clergyman in Glasgow. It 
was on Sabbath the 9th of November. 
We give Dr. Hanna's account. " Applica- 
tions for admission had for several weeks 
been pouring in, in distressing profusion, 
upon those who had seats in that church. 
To many individuals of rank and consid- 
eration, tickets were issued entitling them 
to a place on the pulpit stairs, or in the 
vacant area around the precentor (the man 
who began the tune in the congregational 
singing). As it was resolved that every 
possible effort should be made to secure 
admission to regular seat-holders or their 
friends, and to those to whom tickets had 
been appropriated, the elders and door- 
keepers, assisted by a strong body of police, 
planted themselves on Sabbath morning at 
the main entrance to the church. At so 
early an hour as nine o'clock, an ominous 
stream of foot-passengers began to turn 
into Macfarline street, and the roll of car- 
riages was heard sounding along the Gallow 
gate. Before the doors were opened, Mac- 
farline street, Queen street, and Campbell 



266 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



street were filled with excited groups, wait- 
ing eagerly for admission. At last the 
main entrance was thrown open, the gath- 
ered crowd converged upon it, and the 
conflict commenced. For a brief season 
the efforts of the doorkeepers and their 
allies were successful ; the assailants, how- 
ever, multiplied so rapidly, and the mass 
accumulated •behind drove on those who 
were before them with such impetuosity, 
that the well-guarded entrance was forced. 
When it was seen that success had crowned 
the efforts of the assailants, the crash 
through the passage became tremendous, — 
a dense but still struggling mass of human 
beings, compressed for a few moments into 
extreme compactness, and then expanding 
as the perilous passage was at last made 
and the interior of the church was gained, — 
some to draw breath after a stifling squeeze, 
— some to rearrange their dishevelled ha- 
biliments, — some to turn an eager eye 
upon the scene of recent conflict. And 
now the tide of battle was for a moment 
turned as a party of the 73d regiment, 



LIEE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 267 



summoned hastily from the adjacent bar- 
racks, forced their way through all impedi- 
ments, and took up their position beside 
the entrance to the church. By these 
effective aids, and after much personal 
exertion, the elders and doorkeepers suc- 
ceeded in obtaining access for a number of 
the congregation who otherwise would 
have been excluded. Still, however, even 
through a barrier of bayonets, the crowd 
continued to make way, till not a single 
sitting or standing spot was left unoccu- 
pied. Into a church adapted only for 
seventeen hundred, nearly double that num- 
ber was packed. The pew in which I sat 
— one who was present has informed us — 
contained fourteen sittings, but on that 
occasion twenty-six persons were crammed 
into it, some sitting, some standing on the 
floor, others standing on the seat. The 
confusion grew within as the pressure 
somewhat abated from without ; and it was 
no gentle or very Sabbath frame of mind 
that prevailed. At length the preacher rose 
within that pulpit from which he was to 



268 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



address his hearers for the last time. In a 
moment the bustle ceased, and all the 
varied expressions of that great crowd of 
faces were turned into one uniform gaze of 
profound and fixed attention. After prayer 
and praise, the text, from Psalm 136: 5 and 
6, was distinctly read, and its general 
lessons having been unfolded and impressed, 
the speaker came at its close to speak to 
those from whom, as their minister, he was 
now finally to be dissevered." We have 
no room to give extracts from this discourse ; 
but we have no doubt all his hearers felt 
amply repaid for the trouble and danger 
they had defied in gaining an entrance to 
the church. 

One more meeting, but of a very different 
character, Dr. Chalmers was to hold among 
his people before his final removal to St. 
Andrews. This was a dinner given to him 
by some of the leading citizens. At this 
dinner, three hundred and forty gentlemen 
sat down, the largest party that had ever 
assembled in the city in honor of one man. 
No distinction was made of party, po- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 269 



litical or religious. He was a man of 
whom they were all proud, and whom they 
all delighted to honor. The evening was 
unusually pleasant, and when he retired, at 
the suggestion of the Lord Provost all the 
company stood as he left them. " This 
closing and unexpected token of good-will 
quite overcame Dr. Chalmers. Bowing 
repeatedly to all quarters, he could only say 
as he withdrew, ' I cannot utter a hundreth 
part of what I feel; but I will do better, I 
will bear it air away. Gentlemen, fare- 
well L ' " 

On the day after this farewell dinner, 
Dr. Chalmers left for St. Andrews, where he 
was followed by four of his Glasgow friends. 
His induction into his new duties took 
place immediately ; also his preparatory 
lecture. This lecture was crowded, and 
in power and eloquence fully equalled the 
minister's reputation. His four friends 
remained to listen to it ; also to give a 
dinner on the next day to the two princi- 
pals, all the professors of the University, 
the ministers of the city, and a number of 



270 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



gentlemen from the neighborhood. " So 
gracefully," says Dr. Hanna, "did Glasgow 
surrender to St. Andrews what St. An- 
drews had originally bestowed." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Dr. Chalmers' family were not immedi- 
ately removed to St. Andrews. He found 
a home in the house of his friend Mr. Dun- 
can, and from there writes to his wife of 
his occupation. " I get up at six o'clock, 
have a morning's diet of study before 
breakfast, then a forenoon diet between one 
and three, and my last is between tea and 
supper. With this amount of study I 
think that I shall get tolerably on, and be 
able to converse with my dear family be- 
tween dinner and tea. I walk before 
dinner. This day I made my students 
laugh by calling them ' my brethren,' in- 
stead of ' gentlemen.' In November, at 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



271 



the time of his going to St. Andrews, he 
had but little preparation for his lectures. 
Now, being joined by his family and pleas- 
antly settled, he applied himself for four 
months to his writing with the greatest 
assiduity." In a letter written about this 
time, he says : " I shall be lecturing for six 
weeks yet, and am very nearly hand to 
hand with my preparations. I have the 
prospect of winning the course, though it 
will be by no more than half a week, but I 
like the employment vastly." 

His lecture room, as it might be supposed, 
was filled not only with his students, but 
with those " amateur spectators " who were 
drawn thither by his reputation. It was a 
new era for the students. The very presence 
of the strangers was unheeded ; never be- 
fore had moral philosophy lived and glowed 
as it did now. The dull detail, the dry 
theories, the stale illustrations, were ex- 
changed for deep and fervid thoughts; 
there was no laggard in entering the recita- 
tion room, no sleepy or stupid listener there. 
Dr. Chalmers proved himself, in his first 



272 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



course of lectures, to possess that trait, 
which, above all others, insures a teachers 
success, — the power of kindling in his 
pupils some of the enthusiasm which 
burned in his own breast. 

At the close of this first busy session, 
having fully established his power and 
reputation as a teacher, he spent the early 
part of his vacation in preparation for the 
meeting of the General Assembly in Edin- 
burgh. This proved a stormy session, and 
Dr. Chalmers returned fatigued to St. An- 
drews to snatch only a fortnight's recre- 
ation before going up to look after his late 
people in Glasgow. He had engaged to 
preach six successive Sabbaths in his new 
chapel ; then all his agencies must be 
reviewed, and their interests carefully looked 
after. He filled during this time twelve 
large folio journal letters to Mrs. Chalmers 
with an account of what he is doing and 
seeing. " I think,*' he says, at its close, 
" that I never spent a time of more crowded 
occupancy." Breakfast, dinner, and tea for 
every day in the week were crowded with 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 273 

invitations. "With a charming simplicity 
we find him wondering why his friends are 
not satisfied when he has accepted one 
invitation, but always urge him to come 
again, " so that there seems to be no relief 
in the prospect of getting through." Now 
he is preaching to an audience of three 
thousand people, — and now he is sitting 
quietly listening to a debate on church 
affairs, during which he says of the principal 
speaker, that his address " was on the whole 
WYeryOutre rigmarole and feeble piece of sen- 
ility." Anniversary sermons, death scenes, 
penitent souls seeking advice and comfort, 
philanthropists with wild plans for the 
world's immediate salvation ; and, among 
them all, the " old daft woman ; " who true 
to her love stands by the carriage door and 
seizes the Doctors hand when he alights, 
with so much ardor that friends have to 
come to his rescue ; haunts his steps, and 
with her frenzied devotion annoys its 
object almost beyond the pitch of human 
endurance. In the midst of all this occu- 
pation, as his long letters prove, he does 
18 



274 



LIFE 01 THOMAS CHALMERS. 



not forget his wife and children at home. 
i; I want (he writes) each letter you receive 
from me to be signalized by a feast of 
strawberries to the children on the day of 
its arrival : therefore I expect that on Sat- 
urday, which will be the day of your re- 
ceiving this, these strawberries, with a com- 
petent quantity of cream and sugar, shall 
be given accordingly, and given from me. 
the papa of these said children, each and 
all of them being told that he is the donor 
of the same." Again, he notices for 
Miss Grace Chalmers, "that the sheep's 
head is still in its old place, but without 
the flowers that formerly occupied its nose 
and eyes." In a more serious manner he 
writes : " I beg that Anne may think seri- 
ously of death and of the need of prepa- 
ration : and let her be well assured, that, if 
she neglects the work now. she will ever 
find herself as she gets on in life more and 
more averse to it. Do have an earnest and 
right conversation with her and Eliza and 
Grace upon the subject. ... I beg you 
will watch over the souls of our children ; 
we are answerable for them."' 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 275 



So passed Dr. Chalmers' resting-time ; 
and at the commencement of the next 
session we find him in St. Andrews, ready 
to commence his lecturing. Never was 
such a class gathered before as that which 
now awaited him. The number was un- 
precedented ; they came from Edinburgh 
and from England. Those who had fin- 
ished their course of study some years 
previously, came again as students. The 
tone and character of the class were so high 
and cultivated, that it would have supplied 
in itself a strong stimulant to Dr. Chalmers, 
if any such had been needed. We give the 
reader Dr. Hanna's description of this 
course of lectures, as embodying every 
thing that could be said of them in a brief 
and graphic manner. " The very manner 
of their delivery would have been sufficient 
to have kept their eyes fixed upon the 
lecturer. There was, beside, the novelty of 
many of the speculations, as well as the 
garb in which they were presented; while 
the interest was at once deepened and 
diversified at times by some extempora- 



276 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



neous addition or illustration, in which 
the lecturer, springing from his seat and 
bending over the desk, through thick and 
difficult and stammering utterance, in 
which every avenue of expression seemed 
to be choked up, found his way to some pic- 
turesque conception and expressive phrase- 
ology, which shed a flood of light on the 
topic in hand ; and again, by some poet's 
quotations, recited with the most emphatic 
power, or, by some humorous allusion or 
anecdote, told with the archest glee. ... It 
was impossible, in such a singular class- 
room, to check the burst of applause, or to 
restrain the merriment." If we are to 
judge from some of the anecdotes narrated, 
the class were excusable. These were of 
frequent occurrence. Take the following 
illustration of the different standards of 
enjoyment among the work people of dif- 
ferent countries. " I remember," said the 
Professor, " hearing, while I was in Glasgow, 
of a Scotchman and an Irishman getting 
into converse and comparing notes with 
each other about their modes of living. The 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 277 



Scotchman, with the curiosity common to 
his nation, asked the Irishman what he took 
for breakfast. The answer was fi potatoes.' 
He next asked what he took for dinner. It 
was the same answer, 'potatoes.' He 
finally asked him what he took for sup- 
per. There was the same unvarying 
answer, 6 potatoes.' £ But have you,' said 
the wondering Scotchman, who could not 
altogether comprehend the mystery of such 
a diet and regimen, ' but have you no 
kitchen (condiment) to your potatoes?' 
fi Any kitchen,' said the Irishman, ' to be 
sure I have ; why, didn't I make the big 
potatoes kitchen to the little ones ? ' " 

His students had the common manner of 
stamping to express their approbation. 
This he specially disliked ; and, ever watch- 
ful of the manners of his classes during 
lecture hours, he took occasion to reprove 
them for it in this way. After having 
described it as a practice which was making 
sad desecration in some of the most famous 
Universities, he says : " It is a new and 
somewhat perplexing phenomena in our 



278 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



seats of learning, and, whatever diversity of 
opinion may obtain as to the right treat- 
ment of it, my friend (a professor) and 
myself agreed in one thing, — that if any 
response is to come back upon the pro- 
fessor for the effusions poured forth by him, 
it is far better if it should come from the 
heads than the heels of the rising genera- 
tion." 

But this was beyond the power of the 
Professor to control, particularly as hardly 
a lecture was delivered, in the course of 
which there was not repeated occasions 
for calling it forth. We find the neighbor, 
a dentist, complaining to Dr. Chalmers, 
that the noise made by his students occa- 
sioned him trouble in the operations which 
so peculiarly affect the nerves. The Pro- 
fessor promised to speak to his students, 
and the next morning he told them of his 
interview with the operator, and in an arch 
and significant manner warned them against 
provoking a man who was " so much in 
the mouths of the public." 

Occasionally, something from the class 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS 



279 



itself wakened the merriment, M A raw- 
boned student from the wilds of Rosshire 
was once called up for examination : { Who, 3 
said the Professor, about to plunge into the 
discussion of the Malthusian doctrine, 
1 who was the father of the correct theory 
of population ? ' At once, and in the 
strongest northern accent, his young friend 
answered. * Julius Caesar.' The gravest 
students were overset by this incongruous 
reply, and for a few minutes nothing was 
seen of the Professor himself, but his back 
rising and falling above the book-board as 
he struggled with the fit of laughter into 
which he had been thrown. "When, at last, 
he was able to command himself, he cour- 
teously apologized for his untimely hilarity 
to the poor student, who still stood in con- 
fusion before him, and without the least 
allusion to the answer, expressed his great 
regret that he could never hear that pecu- 
liar dialect without his risibility being af- 
fected."' 

We must now turn from Dr. Chalmers 
as the popular and successful lecturer to 



280 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



note for a while the effect which his change 
in life produced upon his own character. 
In Glasgow, religion, — the close contact 
with souls, — conversion, death, and eternity, 
were daily und almost hourly before him. 
Now he had in a measure left those things 
behind him, and, once more amid the classic 
scenes of St. Andrews, his natural love for 
science and teaching may be supposed to 
absorb every other interest. But Dr. Chal- 
mers is now a tried Christian. It is there- 
fore very interesting to test this phase of 
his character in a journal, which, after being 
discontinued for some time, was again 
resumed. We would notice first, however, 
that he introduced into his lectures a new 
but very interesting form, that of com- 
mencing them with prayer. " These peti- 
tions," says Dr. Lorimer, in his Memo- 
randa, " were very short, consisting of but 
a few sentences, but always impressive and 
sometimes very sublime. The virtual re- 
cognition of Divine Revelation in this form 
was very salutary to young men engaged 
on themes, which, at their age, frequently 
suggest skeptical thoughts." 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



281 



Dr. Chalmers was well aware of the 
dangers to which this new mode of life 
exposed him. In a letter written about 
this time to a friend, he says : " I am posi- 
tively at this moment, and have been for 
weeks, in a state of the most delicious 
repose. I know well at the same time that 
this may alienate from God, and that 
health and friendship, and the enjoyment 
of old associations and congenial literature, 
and animating success in labors which are 
light and exhilarating, — that these may 
take possession of the heart as so many 
idols, and bring it altogether under the power 
of ungodliness. Do let me have an interest 
in your prayers." Again : " Danger of 
many withering influences in St. Andrews. 
. . . I pray that God would strengthen in 
me the things that remain, and which are 
ready to die. . . . Have to remark, that in 
proportion as I am engrossed in my daily 
literature, in that proportion I am exiled 
from God ; and let this endear to me the 
more our Christian Sabbath, and lead me 
diligently to improve it. ... I feel my- 



282 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



self knocking at a door I cannot open ; but 
let me continue to knock, and the door 
shall be opened to me. . . . O ray God! 
suffer me not to fall away from earnestness. 
. . . It is quite melancholy to observe my 
utter destitution of sacred feeling through 
the hours of common life. Is there no way 
by which I can keep up communion with 
God all the day long? . . . Mrs. Chalmers 
and I both feel very much the pressure of 
the society which crowds about us, though 
we do not well know how to help ourselves. 
It is very indiscriminate society too. We 
must not, however, forget the special direc- 
tion of being given to hospitality, and the 
more general one of taking up the cross 
daily. The misery is that I do not turn it 
to a Christian account. Have reason to 
question myself seriously with regard to my 
spirit in all public services. Do I seek the 
glory of God ? Have I no secret longings 
after my own glory ? . . . O my God ! let 
me lie low, and know what it is to be divested 
of self. . . . O my God ! help me to sub- 
serve every speculation of mine to the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



283 



interest and the advancement of our Sav- 
iour's kingdom. If thy presence go not 
with me, take me not hence. . . . Two 
meetings, — a college and a University one, 
in both of which the business was painfully 
interesting. I suffer myself to be too much 
engrossed with them when away from the 
scenes of operation. O my God! dis- 
possess me of every undue affection, by 
means of the growth of that affections in 
my heart which is supremely due. ... I 
erred in my own temper, and I pray for a 
spirit of forbearance and forgiveness under 
every persecution. ... I feel a stricture 
upon my spiritual faculties, which I ascribe 
to my want of single-heartedness. There 
are idols which I must cast away. . . . Old 
things have not wholly passed away, the 
love of literature for itself, and the love of 
literary distinction, have not passed away. 
Let me love literature as one of those crea- 
tures of God which is not to be refused, but 
to be received with thanksgiving. Let me 
desire literary distinction, but let my desire 
for it be altogether that I may add to my 



284 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



Christian influence, and promote the glory 
of God ; then, even with these, I would be 
a new creature." 

Such were some of the regrets, — the 
longings and the promises for the future, 
with which Dr. Chalmers day by day ex- 
amined and controlled his life. No earthly 
interest or pursuit w T as so absorbing as to 
separate him for any length of time from 
that first, great object; even his success he 
regarded as a temptation, and would fain 
by all " promote the glory of God." 

About this time in Dr. Chalmers' literary 
life were sent, perhaps to aid him in his 
good resolutions, many annoyances con- 
nected with his professorship. We will not 
enter minutely into them, as they w T ere 
principally of local interest ; but they cast 
their shadow over Dr. Chalmers' life, that 
amid their gloom he may have nearer 
and brighter views of heaven. He writes 
at this time in his journal : " Give me to 
feel my duty to St. Andrews ; let me not 
be ashamed or afraid. . . . Feel more than 
ever the uncongeniality of St. Andrews. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



285 



. . . A very great want of congenial society. 
. . . A sad reverse from yesterday. There 
was an attempt at a compromise, which 
signally failed, and with some dread ebulli- 
tions of rage from my adversaries. I believe 
that I must act calmly and firmly, and 
withal, charitably aloof from them. ... I 
erred in my own temper, and pray for a 
spirit of forgiveness and forbearance under 
every provocation." In the midst of all 
this, Dr. Chalmers went quietly on his w T ay, 
suffering much, we do not doubt, from the 
provocations, but firm in his own rectitude ; 
and if hastily giving way to temper, pray- 
ing over its result. 

When his May vacation at last came, he 
hastened to Edinburgh, once more to take 
his place in the General Assembly. Con- 
stantly espousing in that reverend body 
the side of pure and undefiled religion, 
" struggling for the simplicity and power of 
the preacher's life, unshackled by any con- 
nection with secular affairs, he was destined 
constantly to be defeated, and just at this 
period in his life he seemed to stand at 



286 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



antagonism with almost all with whom he 
was connected. Still, during this vacation, 
his preaching and active religious exertions 
continued. He lectured before the School 
of Arts, preached four successive Sabbaths 
in Glasgow, and, making a tour among the 
picturesque towns of Scotland, he preached 
often for his brother clergymen, giving us, 
in his journal pleasant accounts of his stay 
at their manses and the general and hearty 
sympathy and love with which he was 
everywhere received. The length of his 
letters which he wrote his wife may be 
judged by his own account of them. " I 
have written you as much as would form 
an octavo volume of three hundred pages 
of the same type as my sermons." 

So passed his vacation ; and his return to 
St. Andrews was destined to be clouded 
still more by domestic affliction. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 287 



CHAPTER XIX. 

After Dr. Chalmers' removal from Glas- 
gow to St. Andrews, two of his sisters 
sickened and died. His remaining sister 
was gentle, lovely, quiet, and domestic. 
She rarely spoke, or seemed to think of 
herself, so that her character was less un- 
derstood and less remarkable than that of 
the other members of the family ; but now 
disease laid its withering hand upon her, 
and it was evident to ^ all her friends that 
she was hastening to the grave. So far in 
her life she had expressed no hope in 
Christ; simple and filial in her character, 
her natural loveliness had not made this 
want so apparent to her friends ; but now, 
she was passing within the veil, and her 
brother, from amid the duties of St. An- 
drews, cast an anxious and searching gaze 
into that quiet reserve which had hitherto 
cast itself about her. With admirable tact 
he adapts himself to these characteristics, 



288 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and we have given us a series of letters, in 
which gently and simply he endeavors to 
awaken her interest and lead her to her 
Saviour. ... 44 The thing we most want," 
he writes, "is a great concern about the 
soul. Do not fatigue or oppress yourself 
with reading much at a time, but rather 
lay seriously to heart the little you do read. 
A single verse of the Bible, when dwelt 
upon believingly, may be of more benefit to 
the soul than whole volumes carelessly 
read and speedily forgotten. . . . Be as- 
sured that he will in nowise cast you out, 
if you come to him. Be not afraid, only 
believe, and according to your faith so shall 
it be done unto you. ... If you could mix 
a believing thought of him with the pains 
and sicknesses which come upon you, he 
will either lighten the pains, or, what is still 
better, he will make them the instrument 
of refining and purifying your soul. . . . 
I am sensible that the mind is very much 
affected by the state of the body, and that, 
when one is in agony, the other cannot be 
expected to be very clear or vigorous in any 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 289 

of its exercises. Nevertheless, Christ know- 
eth our frame ; and even our darkest and 
most confused thoughts of himself he seeth 
afar off, and precious in his sight is all the 
confidence that we can lay upon his full 
and finished expiation. A sense of your 
sins ought never to extinguish the sense of 
your Saviour. There is no part of Scrip- 
ture which I think more fitted to soothe 
and sustain a dejected spirit than the writ- 
ings of John. . . . This is a sad and 
suffering world, but we are invited to look 
forward to another." 

After a long series of these letters, there 
comes at last, this one of thanksgiving. 
" However grieved I am to hear of your 
illness, yet my grief is mixed with the 
liveliest gratitude to the God of all com- 
fort for the peace and the grace which he 
has been pleased to bestow upon you. I 
know not when I have read any commu- 
nication with truer pleasure than that 
which brought me the tidings of your peace 
and joy in believing. ... It is delightful to 
think of the gracious tokens of his loving- 
19 



290 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



kindness that your merciful Father has 
already given you. They are intimations 
of your coming glory. They are the earnest 
of your inheritance. They are the satis- 
fying pledges to us all, of the great and 
good things that are in reserve for you, and 
they serve to reconcile us, as I am sure they 
will do you, to the pains of your sore dis- 
ease, which after all are but the light afflic- 
tions which are but for a moment. . . . He 
knows all the difficulties of the way that 
you now travel, and he knows how to sus- 
tain you under them. Cast yourself upon 
him, and he will bear you up." 

Gently, meekly, trustingly, these last few 
months of the sufferer glided on. Her 
Saviour was "making her bed" in these 
solemn hours. Earth had never offered her 
much, and heaven seemed so rich in its 
priceless gifts as it drew near. We find 
recorded the first line which we have ever 
seen from the pen of the mother. We give 
it entire, for it seems to bring us near to 
the pious saint. We feel, that, after having 
perused it, we know Chalmers' mother 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



291 



better. It was written to her son James ; 
and in reading it, the reader must remember 
that this one was the last of the fourteen 
who remained with her, and that her death 
left the home utterly desolate. 

" My dear son : I have now to write you 
of the death of your poor suffering sister 
Isabel. She died on Saturday night at 
eight o'clock. She bore her trouble with 
great patience and resignation, looking 
forward to death, and died full of hopes of 
eternal glory, believing in and trusting to 
the righteousness of Jesus Christ to save 
her. Thomas came down to-night; his 
wife came on Saturday, and we have been 
much the better of her. Helen has at- 
tended her with more than a sister's care 
and affection. I have the comfort that my 
dear Isabel had every attention she could 
wish, both for food and medicine. To- 
morrow is her burying day. We do not 
ask persons out of town, and have given up 
the foolish custom of bringing a rabble into 
the house to drink wine and eat sweet 
bread. I rather wish to save this, and every 



292 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



unnecessary expense, that I may be able 
to afford to give to the poor, who are very 
numerous in this place. ... I have been 
studying contentment, and find it a most 
comfortable virtue, that gives great peace of 
mind to those who possess it. I recom- 
mend that study to you. . . . To live long 
and not feel sorrow is not to be expected 
in this state of trouble, disappointment, 
and woe. Happy for us to hope for that 
state where sin and sorrow never enter. 
May we all die the death of the righteous, 
and may our latter end be like theirs that 
are now inheriting the promises. Such is the 
sincere wish of your ever affectionate mother." 

And this wish of the submissive, holy 
mother was about to be gratified. The 
angel had been commissioned who was to 
lead her to the home where so many of her 
loved ones were already waiting her. 

Dr. Chalmers' residence at St. Andrews 
made it easy for him to be frequently with 
her ; and from the hour when this last sister 
was borne from his father's house, he seems 
to have assumed the care, not only of her 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



293 



domestic matters, but of her spiritual 
growth and daily happiness. If prevented 
for any longer time than usual from going 
to her. he wrote her. A few extracts from 
these letters, just at this period of their lives, 
will be full of interest. The son, at the 
head of his profession both as minister and 
lecturer, with every moment of his time 
filled to overflowing with the active duties 
of life, and the old mother, nearly blind 
and deaf, sitting down quiet and alone 
under the home-roof, her work all done, 
waiting for that issued summons. 

" My dear mother," writes this son, 
" there are few circumstances which give 
me greater satisfaction than the peace of 
mind and prospects of blessedness which 
you enjoy in your old age. . . . May you 
ever continue to have great peace and joy 
in believing; and, with a hope ever growing 
of heaven on the other side of death, may 
you be found, when it arrives, in a state of 
meetness for the inheritance of the saints. 
. . . It gives us all the greatest pleasure to 
think, that, though all your family have now 



294 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



left you, you have such ample and indepen- 
dent resources within yourself. ... It is a 
matter of comfort and thankfulness to us 
all, that, in the midst of solitude, and now 
that all your family are away from you, 
you have such a perpetual feast within 
yourself, — a delight in heavenly things, a 
quiet looking forward to an immortality 
of happiness and rest." 

Writing to a friend, Dr. Chalmers says : 
" "What a season of delight and of ripening 
for heaven has my mother's old age turned 
out to her, who, in the absence of all for- 
eign resources, enjoys a perpetual feast in 
the happy repose of her spirit on that Sav- 
iour whom she trusts, — that God whom 
she feels to be reconciled to her." 

Writing from this solitude, Mrs. Chal- 
mers herself says : " I am very frail and 
very infirm; but what a blessing it is, that 
my memory and faculties are as if I were 
twenty (she was now seventy-seven). I bless 
God that it is so. I feel a pleasant con- 
tentment and peace of mind, that the world 
cannot give or take away. I amuse my- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 295 



self with working and reading. God is 
very good to me, who gives me a contented 
and happy frame of mind; and I trust my 
God will never leave nor forsake me ; that 
when death comes, he will also be with me, 
and give me good hopes through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." 

A short time after this letter was written, 
the sickness came. Dr. and Mrs. Chalmers 
were hastily summoned to Anstruther. She 
was "hastening to her grave ; but her mind," 
writes this good son, "is filled with entire 
and peaceful assurance. She herself speaks 
of the love of her dying Saviour, and retains 
that deep and settled composure which has 
imparted so much serenity to the evening of 
her days." The next letter gives a singular 
illustration of the exact and systematic 
manner in which all her domestic affairs 
were regulated. After giving the same 
cheering account of her spiritual state, Dr. 
Chalmers begs his brother to write at once 
to relieve one of his mother's smaller anx- 
ieties. " She has all along," he writes, 
" been a person of the uttermost exactness, 



296 LITE OP THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and she wants to be satisfied that you 
received for Mary a small marriage present 
of twenty pounds, that she inclosed to you 
a week ago. Do let us know this by 
return of post. She also sent her by the 
carrier an old silver jug. which belonged to 
our grandfather. This may not still have 
reached you. but the other should; pray let 
us know.*'' The letter came, and the 
mother " is much gratified therewith.*' 
Carefully and thoroughly she seems to have 
set her house in order ; she sends a mes- 
sage to this same son, that he " had better 
come down and attend to the estate, to 
which upon her death he should become 
heir." i; With that minute and careful 
attention to business," said her son, u which 
characterized her through life, she even 
adverted to a likely purchaser/' And now 
the son becomes the nurse ; driving to St. 
Andrews to deliver two lectures a day. he 
hastens back as soon as these duties are 
accomplished to comfort and attend her. 
Night after night he watches patiently 
and gently as that same mother had once 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 297 



tended him. " I have not been in bed last 
night," he writes again ; " I have much 
sleeplessness." " Nothing," she said, " did her 
good but prayer." Though deaf to every other 
earthly sound, of these " she heard every 
word," and they "gave her great comfort." 
So Dr. Chalmers, bending near her, prayed. 
Her "trust was in God," her trust was 
also in her Saviour. She was a great 
sinner, but Christ was a great Saviour. 
She prayed earnestly for exemption from 
pain previous to her death, to think of the 
love of her dying Saviour. Her "predomi- 
nant feature was a deep and immovable 
trust of her spirit upon her Saviour. This 
had been growing apace for some years, 
and it shed a singularly beautiful and quiet 
light over the evening of her days," says 
her admiring son. " All her dying pains 
were supportable, for Christ was with her, 
and the kindness of her friend was there 
also." Every minute circumstance of these 
last hours, Dr. Chalmers records with filial 
tenderness ; and when the last dread struggle 
came, lifting her in his arms, while another 



298 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



son assisted him in supporting her, they 
held her until she breathed forth these last 
beautiful words, " Lord Jesus, receive my 
spirit," and the spirit passed to be with 
him where he is. 

" I am now," writes Dr. Chalmers, " in 
frequent converse with her remains. The 
countenance, which looked so ghastly in 
dying, has a peace in death which is pleas- 
ing to look upon. Oh, may the hallowed 
remembrance of my dear mother guard my 
heart against every unlawful emotion, and 
may I bear to the end of my days an 
habitual regard for the memory of her who 
terminated her useful and respectable life 
on a death-bed of piety." 

In a few expressive words, in a subse- 
quent letter to her friends, he sums up her 
life and character during those last days. 
We must leave her with this brief extract. 
" There never w^as spent a solitude of 
greater independence and greater enjoyment, 
divided as it was between little schemes of 
usefulness to the poor families around her, 
and those secret exercises of reading and 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 299 



meditation and prayer which have so 
ripened her for heaven. My impression of 
her early life was, that she was more re- 
markable for the cardinal, than the softer, 
virtues of our nature. But age, and the 
pow T er of Christianity together, have mel- 
lowed her whole character ; the mildness of 
charity, and the peace which the world 
knoweth not, threw a most beautiful and 
quiet light over the evening of her days." 



CHAPTER XX. 

Our last view of Dr. Chalmers in his 
professorship was of a man struggling 
amid new scenes to retain nearness to God 
and clear self-knowledge. It will be pleas- 
ant to regard him. now in his old employ- 
ment of going about to do good. The 
religious character of the people of St. 
Andrews was very low. Careless of what 
gospel privileges they had, there was the 
same destitution, ignorance, and wicked- 



300 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



ness, particularly among the lower classes, 
which had so much interested Dr. Chal- 
mers in Glasgow. Something must be 
done for them, and a must was never passed 
by, particularly if it pertained to the moral 
condition. As soon as college duties be- 
came settled, Dr. Chalmers marked out 
near his residence a parish, something in the 
same manner which he had done in Glas- 
gow; and, visiting each family, invited the 
children to come to his house every Sab- 
bath evening to receive instruction. 

For " this little group," says Dr. Hanna, 
" composed of the poorest children he could 
gather round him, Dr. Chalmers prepared 
as carefully as for his class in the Univer- 
sity — some stray leaves still existing, on 
which the questions for the evening are 
written out." The great means of doing 
good which is wielded by the Sabbath 
school, in the ready access which is gained 
by the parents through the children, was 
soon manifested here. One parent, then 
another and another, until the room was 
crowded with an attentive and eager audi- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 301 



tory. Dr. Chalmers was always in earnest 
in whatever he undertook. We feel that we 
cannot too often point out this secret of 
success to our young readers. He worked 
diligently and thoroughly, even to writing 
the exercises for this small class of poor 
little children. If a thing was worth doing, 
it was worth doing well, and as well as he 
could do it. He had no measure for his 
exertions but the extent of his physical 
or mental ability. He was never too in- 
dolent, never too weary ; he did with his 
might what his hand found to do, and 
therefore God blessed him. The issue of 
this evening Sabbath school will be found 
to be a singularly forcible illustration, both 
of this trait and God's attendant blessing. 
Beside this school, Dr. Chalmers had 
another class, a description of which we 
give in a letter from one of its members, 
Dr. Samuel Miller. " On being sent to 
college," he writes in 1823, " my father re- 
commended me specially to Dr. Chalmers' 
spiritual care. As that, however, was 
the year of Dr. Chalmers' inauguration into 



302 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the St. Andrews chair, and his hands were 
full, no particular method was adopted by 
him for discharging a trust which he very 
readily undertook. Next session, however, 
it was suggested to him, that he might act 
somewhat of a father's part to the sons of 
some of his old friends by taking us into 
his house on a Sabbath evening, and giving 
us that religious instruction to which we 
had been accustomed at home. He at 
once consented to this, and during that 
winter five of us met regularly in his house 
on a Sabbath evening, when he instructed 
us, and dealt with our souls as if we had 
been his own children. He gave us books 
for Sabbath reading, and examined us as to 
their contents, at the same time taking his 
own Scripture references as a kind of doc- 
trinal text-book for his examinations and 
expositions. By another year this little 
meeting was noised abroad, and at the 
earnest solicitations of parents, other stu- 
dents were admitted to the privilege of 
attending it, till the little company was 
increased to about a dozen. It was his 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 303 



very earnest desire not to have a larger 
number. He used again and again to tell 
us so, alleging as a reason, that he wished 
to look on us, and deal with us, as in a 
family character. And so he did in the 
way of parental counsel and prayer, joined 
with the approved old fashion of familiar 
catechizing. By next year, however, appli- 
cations to this student class became so 
numerous and pressing, that, after resisting 
for a while, he at length gave way, and this 
third session of the class saw his large 
dining-room completely crammed with stu- 
dents of all sorts and sizes. His mode of 
conducting the meeting now necessarily 
changed. His instructions became a kind 
of prelection to silent auditors on the lead- 
ing topics of Christian doctrine and per- 
sonal religion ; very simple and conversa- 
tional they were, but all the more valuable 
for that. It is now about a quarter of a 
century since, and not a few of that roomful 
have entered the eternal world. Others 
still remain ; and I have good reason for 
being confident, that, on many hearts, im- 



304 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



pressions were made by the hallowed exer- 
cises of Sabbath hours, which have yielded, 
and will yield, fruit to God. We all feel 
that we learned more of really Christian 
ethics at these meetings than by all his 
class-room lectures on moral philosophy." 
As this class enlarged in numbers and 
importance, Dr. Chalmers could not find 
as much time for his local Sabbath school. 
He was therefore obliged to call in the 
assistance of some of his pious young men 
to aid him in this department. It is re- 
ported, that when Dr. Chalmers first went 
to St. Andrews there was but one pious 
young man connected with the University. 
They were, as a body, "a singularly godless, 
Christless class." Even this good young 
man was the butt for all the ridicule and 
fun of college. The students prided them- 
selves upon the immorality and wickedness 
of their lives. The religious destitution 
among them was quite as great, and far 
more deplorable, than among the poor and 
neglected. 

Dr. Chalmers' influence must have been 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 305 

soon felt, for when the call came, there was 
found an excellent young man already to 
help him. This may have been the one 
good one, — we are not told, — but Dr. 
Chalmers says of him, " that he was pre- 
eminently distinguished as a scholar, but 
was no less preeminent for the attractive 
graces of a deep and genuine piety. It 
was in the second session of my acquaint- 
ance with him that I devolved upon him 
the care of my Sabbath school. In the 
care of this little seminary he displayed a 
tact and talent which were quite admirable, 
and I felt myself far outrun by him in the 
power of kind and impressive communi- 
cation, and in the faculty by which he com- 
manded the interest of pupils, and could 
gain at all times the entire sympathy of 
their understandings." A number of stu- 
dents of the University were soon engaged 
in similar schools ; the town was divided 
into districts, and flourishing schools begun 
in every quarter. From these common 
engagements as teachers, came common 
interests, common prayers, meetings for 
20 



306 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



mutual advice and instruction, a kindling 
of sympathy in religious matters, which are 
to tell powerfully upon the Church of Scot- 
land and the world. " We expected," said 
Mr. Urquhart, the favorite student of whom 
Dr. Chalmers speaks so highly, " a little 
group of eight or ten persons to assemble 
at our meetings, but were astonished to find 
the attendance increase at some of the 
stations to fifty or sixty. Many of these 
never went to church." 

While his two Sabbath schools were 
thus successfully proceeding, his philan- 
thropy did not confine itself exclusively to 
St. Andrews. During his first session a few 
of the divinity students formed themselves 
into a missionary association, of which he 
became the head. He immediately began 
to throw a new charm and interest around 
the whole subject of missions. " This asso- 
ciation," says one of its principal members, 
this same good Mr. Urquhart, was "re- 
garded by some as chimerical. The stu- 
dents would only scoff at it, and the pro- 
fessors frown upon it. A room in the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



307 



University building was denied them in 
which to hold their meetings. Some of 
the professors regarded the association as 
too thoroughly unacaclemical '; by others as 
too puritanical and methodistical ; and by 
almost all as fitted to divert the minds of 
the young men from their appropriate 
studies." But at length, in the face of all 
opposition, this faithful few had obtained 
the use of an exceedingly small and incon- 
venient private school-room. Now Dr. 
Chalmers' strong arm was raised to support, 
and the change was immediate. u He soon 
popularized the subject of missions, un- 
folded the high philosophy involved in them, 
and rendered that one of the most fashion- 
able of themes which had been most nau- 
seated before. By that time, too, his lec- 
tures had taken full effect upon his students, 
and, through them, in mellowing the general 
tone of society. . . . Some of the professors 
became absolutely friendly, while the rest 
relinquished all actual opposition, or held 
their sentiments of repugnance in abeyance. 
. At the commencement of the previous 



30S 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



session, no room of any kind could be had 
within the walls of either college. Now 
Dr. Haldane, principal of St. Mary's, came 
forward voluntarily in the most cordial anc 
generous manner, declaring that the di- 
vinity hall itself was freely at our service, 
or any place which his influence could 
command. . . . Altogether what a change 
in the course of two or three years ! . . . 
The long repose of stagnation and death, 
with its teeming brood of corruption, was 
effectually disturbed, and out of the strife 
of hostile elements a new progeny, fraught 
with life and purity, began to emerge ; and 
in the missionary libraries and assemblies, 
the prayer meetings, the Sabbath schools, 
and preaching-stations in town and coun- 
try, an extensive machinery was erected 
for the diffusing of life-giving influences all 
around. And all this springing suddenly 
into existence from the presence of one 
man. Those who could compare what 
St. Andrews was immediately before Dr. 
Chalmers' residence there with what it was 
two or three years after his arrival, were 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



309 



constrained to feel that no language could 
more appropriately express the great change 
than that of the prophet Isaiah : ' The 
wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice 
and blossom as the rose.' And perhaps 
the most noticeable peculiarity connected 
with the whole of this transformative pro- 
cess was the indirect, rather than the direct, 
mode in which the effectuating influence 
was exerted. It did not result so much 
from direct and formal exhortation on the 
part of Dr. Chalmers, as from the general 
awakening and suggestive power of his 
lectures, — the naked force of his own per- 
sonal piety, and the spreading contagious- 
ness of his own personal merit. . . . He 
faithfully exemplified the principle he pro- 
pounded in his own special actings and 
general conduct. He was known to be a 
man of prayer ; he was acknowledged to 
be a man of active benevolence. He was 
observed to be going about from house to 
house, exhorting adults on the concerns of 
their salvation, and devoting his energies 



310 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



to the humble task of getting around him 
a Sabbath school. He was seen to be the 
reviver of an all but defunct missionary 
society. All these, and other such like 
traits of character and conduct being care- 
fully noted, how could they who intensely 
admired and loved the man do less than 
endeavor, at however great a distance, to 
tread in his footsteps and imitate so noble a 
pattern ? n 

From this description of one who shared 
with so many others the privilege of a 
constant and close intimacy with Dr. Chal- 
mers, we may gather another lesson of the 
utmost practical importance. Dr. Chal- 
mers was not only in earnest in what he 
did, but he took great pains that his daily 
life and example should be in every respect 
governed by the principles he taught. He 
urged others to seek the salvation of their 
souls; the whole tenor of his life showed 
that this was his first and greatest object. 
He urged them to pray, and he bore away 
from his own closet indisputable marks of 
near communion with the Father of spirits. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 311 



He inculcated the duty of doing good as we 
have opportunity ; and his hands were ever 
ready to distribute, — of remembering the 
poor ; and he could leave the crowded lecture- 
room where the utmost efforts of his gifted 
mind were appreciated and lauded, and, 
gathering these little children around him 
in the sanctity of his home, provide milk 
for the babes, never forgetting " that of such 
was the kingdom of heaven." Actions 
speak louder than words ; it is a homely 
but true adage, and cannot be remembered 
too often. 

Dr. Chalmers was permitted, during his 
residence at St. Andrews, to see the result of 
his labors in a way never known there be- 
fore. " More than one missionary from each 
college session, two out of every hundred 
students; what other record can present 
such a parallel ! " exclaims Dr. Hanna, as 
he sums up the result of Dr. Chalmers' 
professorship. 

The character of these missionaries, too, 
was such as the world seldom sees. With 
ardent piety, and a burning desire to save 



312 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



souls, they mingled the softer traits of 
generous, noble-minded, highly cultivated 
men. They carried with them to these 
foreign fields of labor no standard of learn- 
ing and piety which the churches would 
resent at home ; but the whole influence of 
crowning talent, and hearts large and warm 
enough to receive the parting command, 
" Go into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature." 



CHAPTER XXL 

During- the five years of Dr. Chalmers' 
connection with St. Andrews, he received 
a variety of pressing calls to other impor- 
tant stations, — sometimes to preside over a 
large and influential parish, — and some- 
times to other Universities ; but all these 
he declined. Of these various calls he 
writes: " It makes all the difference between 
an offer being brought to me, and my going 
forth to an office. The one I feel as the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 313 



product of a will and wisdom superior to 
my own, the other as the product of de- 
sires and devisings on the part of one who 
is walking in the counsel of his own heart, 
and in the sight of his own eyes. The 
difference in the point of comfort is the 
greatest possible. It reconciled me to all the 
fatigues of Glasgow, — it reconciles me to 
all the suffering of St. Andrews, that I did 
not seek either of these cases, but was sought 
after. I desire that it shall be so through- 
out the whole of my future history in this 
world, that, whatever peculiar trials may 
await me in any place which I shall be 
called to occupy, I may have the pleasure 
of thinking that they were not of my own 
bringing on, — the appointment of heaven, 
not of my own waywardness." 

This " appointment of heaven " came to 
Dr. Chalmers now as a call from the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh to the professorship 
of divinity, then vacant. The call was 
unanimous, and was immediately accepted. 
" It is," writes Dr. Chalmers, " truly a 
most important office, and the person ap- 



314 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



pointed to fill it should feel it his solemn, 
his paramount obligation, to acquit himself 
of all its duties in the way that may be 
most subservient to the great interests of 
truth and sacredness." A year was allowed 
him for preparation, before entering upon 
his new duties ; that year he devoted with 
much assiduity to this work. He was 
appointed Thursday. The next Tuesday he 
enters in his journal, " Have begun to read 
a little Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, each day. 
In the mean time he was equally faithful 
as heretofore in his St. Andrews' professor- 
ship, — indeed, his attachment to the place 
and the students seemed only to increase as 
the time for parting drew near." At the 
close of the last session he records his 
various leave-takings. " Sunday. — Eyed 
the last spectacle of the assembled students 
with emotion. Had my usual meetings, 
and took leave of my student Sabbath 
scholars. . . . Concluded my classes this 
day, was well nigh overcome by my allu- 
sions to the removal that was before me." 
In his last lecture he says : . . e " I am 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 315 



quite sure, that, amid the din and the con- 
fusion and the crowded attendance of that 
larger theatre to which I go, I shall often 
look back with a sigh to the closer and 
kindlier friendships that I have held with 
the students within these walls. Be as- 
sured, gentlemen, as you would of any 
moral certainty, that there is nothing in 
the busier scenes which are now 7 before me, 
that is fitted to displace you from my 
recollections; but, on the contrary, to en- 
hance all my regrets and all my regards, 
when, on contrasting the students of St. 
Andrews with those of Edinburgh, I shall 
think of my connection with you as a pecu- 
liar and a more tender relationship." 

Walton's Polyglot was presented him 
by the members of his class as a parting 
gift. In the close of a short address of 
thanks, he says : " We shall soon part on 
earth. May we meet in heaven ; and, after 
this world with all its fluctuations has 
passed away, may we reach a common 
inheritance in that land where sorrow and 
separation are unknown," 



316 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



His parting from St. Andrews was not 
without its pang. It had been the home 
of his boyhood; the arena of his first 
intellectual strife, the scene of his last 
literary and religious successes ; beside, 
it had in itself many associations con- 
nected with the Church of Scotland 
which made it dear. The University had 
been the cradle of the Reformation. In 
front of St. Salvador's College was the 
hallowed spot where Hamilton expired 
amidst the flames, and close by the castle 
was the scene of Wishart's martyrdom. 
From the deck of a French galley, while 
his feet lay in irons, the spires of St. 
Andrews were pointed out to John Knox. 
" Yes," said he, " I know it well, for I see 
the steeple of that place where God first 
opened my mouth in public to his glory." 
The very pulpit in which he preached is 
still shown ; and to these spots and others 
of more literary, though perhaps less reli- 
gious, interest, Chalmers would return 
again and again. He lived over those old 
past days, and with intense love and fervid- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



317 



ness. he would take his guests to every 
storied spot. In the attic of the house 
where he last resided, Buchanan had 
prayed and studied; and here, too, Dr. 
Samuel Johnson had uttered some of those 
rude speeches, tolerated because he lived 
to be famous. All these associations had 
grown into Dr. Chalmers' heart ; and it 
would be almost like parting with the 
homestead at Anstruther, to leave them 
now for the crowded city of Edinburgh. 
The time, however, soon arrived ; and, being 
obliged to attend the meeting of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, he proceeded to establish 
himself there. 

On Thursday. November 6, 1S28, Dr. 
Chalmers was inaugurated into the duties 
of his new professorship. A description of 
the same is given by an eye-w 7 itness, Mr. 
Cunningham. 

" It was a day, as you may easily believe, 
of no common expectation and excitement, 
not only among those who were pro- 
fessionally required to become his pupils, 
but also to not a few of the worthiest 



318 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



citizens of Edinburgh, who, having once 
and again listened with impassioned won- 
der and delight to his mighty words as a 
preacher of the gospel, scarcely knew what 
to expect from him as an academic ex- 
pounder and disciplinarian in the science 
of theology. If I may judge of other minds 
from the state of my own feelings at the 
time, I may safely state, that at no time 
either before or since has a tumult of emo- 
tions so peculiar and intense agitated the 
hearts of the many who waited his first 
appearance in the chair of theology. I well 
remember his look as he first came from 
the vestry into the passage leading to the 
desk. He had an air of extreme abstrac- 
tion, and at the same time, of full presence 
of mind. Ascending the steps in his fa- 
miliar, resolute manner, he almost imme- 
diately engaged in his opening prayer; that 
was most startling, and yet deeply solem- 
nizing. In closest union with a simple, 
forcible antithesis of intellectual conception, 
clothed in still more antithetical expressions, 
there was a deep, vital consciousness of the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 319 



glory of the Divine presence. . . . On his 
discourse I shall not presume upon your 
patience by any thing like detailed remark. 
All felt, far more deeply than they could 
worthily declare, that it was a most glo- 
rious prelude ; and that, once and forever, 
his right to reign as a king over the broad 
realms of theological science, and to rule 
over their individual minds as a teacher, 
was as unequivocal as his mastery over a 
popular assembly." 

The whole of his first course was equally 
popular and interesting. He entered as 
usual into his new occupation with his 
whole heart; and of this period he jour- 
nalizes : u I am now in a more amazing 
bustle than I ever was in my life ; but, it 
being the first month of my residence in 
Edinburgh, I trust it will subside. I have 
now a written paper in my lobby, shown by 
my servant to all and sundry who are 
making mere calls of attention, which is 
just telling them in a civil way to go about 
their business. If any thing will check 
intrusion, this at length must." In the 



320 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



mean time, great political questions were 
constantly arising; and as many of them 
were of a religious character, the statesmen 
and clergy came into close and intimate 
connection. Dr. Chalmers was not a man 
to be silent at such a time, and among his 
other engagements were those with Sir 
James Mackintosh and Mr. Pitt. There 
came, too, upon him a sudden call from 
God, — one which put back all other claims, 
and which suspended in its midst for a 
time the whole interests and occupations 
of his life. His youngest and dearest 
brother, Alexander, sickened and died. He 
was in the prime of manhood, sunny, joyous, 
and most social in his disposition. Dr. 
Chalmers was not with him when he died ; 
but, hastening to Kilhardy, his place of 
residence, writes to Mrs. Chalmers : " It 
was a large funeral. The sun shone 
sweetly on the burial-place. I was like 
to give way. When, after leaving the grave, 
I passed Mr. Fergus, neither of us could 
speak. Oh that God would interpose to 
perpetuate the impressions of the day ! 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 321 



This is the fifth time within these few 
years that I have been chief mourner, and 
carried the head of a relative to the grave. 
But this has been far the heaviest of them 
all. . . . I alternated my employments within 
doors by walks in the little garden, where 
all objects exposed me to gushes of mourn- 
ful remembrance ; the plants, the petri- 
fied tree, the little cistern for water-plants, 
the rain-gauge, — all abandoned by the 
hand which had placed them there, and took 
such delight in tending them. I could even 
fancy the dog to have a certain melancholy 
air from the want of customary attentions. 
I this day visited the grave, exposed to full 
sunshine. I have never felt any bereave- 
ment so much. ... I do sincerely hope the 
feelings excited by this sad occasion will 
turn to a religious account." Another 
event had taken place some time previous 
in this same town, so that Dr. Chalmers 
was frequently, in the midst of life, remind- 
ed of death. 

Mr. Irving, his former associate in St. 
John's church, Glasgow, had become not 
21 



322 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



only a notorious, but a somewhat heretical, 
preacher. He came to Edinburgh on a 
visit, and, having drawn very crowded 
houses, he was invited to preach in Kil- 
haldy, where his father-in-law was minister. 
On Sabbath evening, when the house was 
filled to overflowing, one entire side of the 
gallery fell, occasioning the death of at 
least thirty-five people. " To me," writes 
Dr. Chalmers, " the interest of the thing was 
tremendous. ... I had Grace and four of 
our bairns in Kilhaldy on a visit, and, to 
add to the alarm, their family-seat was one 
of the front ones in the gallery that fell. 
Sandy was on the beach waiting me, and 
sent out word that all my friends were safe ; 
but you may judge of my agitation when 
I was made to know that my daughter 
Eliza, and Sandy's wife, were in the gallery 
that fell, and that Sandy and my wife 
were in the seat below the opposite gallery, 
which was expected to fall too, and occa- 
sioned a most tremendous rush both above 
and below. . . . My Mrs. Chalmers had 
the presence of mind to sit still. , , . What 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



323 



a dreary interval it must have been to my 
wife, who looked for her friends among the 
dead, and did not meet with them for about 
a quarter of an hour! . . . Our younger 
children were in an agony of cries and loud 
uproar till the mammas and sisters and 
aunts cast up, some of them bareheaded 
and dishevelled. Next day, they who fell 
or were fallen upon began to feel bruises 
of which they were unconscious in the 
excitement of the evening before." 

Dr. Chalmers had now reached his fif- 
tieth year, the zenith of his usefulness and 
popularity; and we find the next three or 
four years busily filled, not only with the 
duties of his chair, but with the various 
political and religious questions of the day. 
These are not of much interest to the 
general reader. We shall pass them over 
with a few brief notices of the objects to 
which he w r as principally devoted : the 
doctrinal errors particularly introduced by 
his friend Mr. Irving ; the poor laws, 
church extension, capital punishment, the 
revolution in France, Catholic emancipa- 



324 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



tion, and many others of kindred nature. 
The discussion of these questions brought 
him personally and by letter in contact 
with the most distinguished personages in 
the realm, — Coleridge, Wilberforce, Pitt, 
Gurney, Sir Robert Peel, Dr. Abercrombie, 
and a host of others, are advising with him 
as to the best interests of their country. He 
is presented to the king and queen, and 
gives a full record of this visit in a letter to 
one of his daughters. All this time his pen 
is also busily occupied in discussing these 
same topics, giving extension and dura- 
bility to those opinions which might other- 
wise have been limited or forgotten. The 
mere title of these books would avail us 
nothing here ; they can easily be obtained 
by any who are solicitous for a more ex- 
tended notice. Summing up himself the 
object of his labors for these years, Dr. 
Chalmers says : " The dearest object of my 
earthly existence is, the elevation of the 
common people ; humanized by Christian- 
ity, and raised by the strength of their 
common habits, to a higher platform of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 325 



human nature, and by which they may 
attain and enjoy the rank and considera- 
tion due to enlightened and companionable 
men. I trust the day is coming when the 
people will find out who are their best 
friends, and when the mock patriotism of 
the present day shall be unmasked by an 
act of robbery and spoliation on the part of 
those who would deprive the poor of their 
best and highest patrimony. The imper- 
ishable soul of the poor man is of as much 
price in the sight of heaven as the soul of 
the rich, and I will resist to the uttermost — 
I will resist even to the death, that aliena- 
tion which goes to swell the luxury of the 
higher ranks at the expense of the Chris- 
tianity of the lower orders." 

"Warm and zealous in the defence of this 
principle, we find Chalmers wherever it is 
attacked, or a probable chance offered of 
its advancement. One of his first severe 
attacks of sickness was after the speech in 
which the sentence quoted above was the 
completing one. The address was a long 
and very animated one ; as he was walking 



326 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



home, he motioned to a friend who was 
passing him on the opposite side of the 
street to come to him. " We had not gone 
many yards," says this friend whom he 
called, " when he suddenly stopped short, 
and said in a subdued and agitated tone, 
that ' he felt very strangely.' I asked 
instantly, how. He said he 6 felt giddy, — 
a numbness down one side, and a tendency 
to fall in that direction.' . . . Having stood 
a few seconds, we walked forward again. 
He said he felt somewhat better, and leant 
on my arm as heretofore, but continued to 
strike the palm of his hand that was dis- 
engaged smartly against his thigh, as if to 
restore circulation. The momentary ap- 
pearance of agitation had passed away 
with a rapidity that astonished me. He 
seemed to have recovered in an instant the 
sweetest and most perfect composure, and 
as he continued to talk on, mildly indeed 
and gently, but cheerfully and winningly as 
usual." A carriage having been called, in 
which the two drove to Dr. Chalmers' 
house, the friend continues : " His manner 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



327 



was a little thoughtful and subdued per- 
haps, but bland and cheerful. He diverted 
his conversation altogether away from the 
subject of his own sensations, and talked 
of a variety of ordinary and indifferent 
matters. On reaching his house, he kindly 
pressed me to come in and dine with him; 
but for obvious reasons I declined remain- 
ing at such a time." 

" I found him." says his medical attend- 
ant, in bed. calm, but impressed by 
the conviction that he was struck down by 
a formidable disease. His mind was 
quite entire : nor did it suffer in the least 
during the course of his illness. His speech 
was somewhat affected, his articulation im- 
perfect. The muscles of the right side of 
his face were partially paralyzed, those of 
the arm and leg decidedly so. Sensation 
over the whole right side was much im- 
paired." 

Efficient medical treatment was. how- 
ever, soon to restore him to his usefulness. 

After a few weeks' confinement,'' says 
this same physician, " he returned to his 



328 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



avocations, and engaged as heartily and 
laboriously as ever in his literary and pro- 
fessional duties." The physician, after a 
short time, interdicted all study, and, in the 
house of a friend to which he had betaken 
himself, Dr. Chalmers writes : " Dr. Begbie 
has interdicted all study, and I am making 
of my vacation one complete holiday. . . . 
My time is divided between church accom- 
modation business and light reading." To 
his sister Jane, he writes : " May these 
premonitions of our frailty have the effect 
of shutting us tip more unto the faith of 
him who can destroy death, and who alone 
hath the words and alone the gift of life 
everlasting." 

In his journal, he writes : " Fears of an 
apoplectic tendency ; see things I imagine 
more through a medium of haze and twi- 
light than I was wont. It is my desire to 
prepare for eternity ; and if imagination and 
sensibility decay, I desire that intellect, 
and still more, that principle, should have 
the entire ascendency and possession over 
" .... A second suspicious visitation sent 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 329 



for Dr. Begbie, who orders an entire cessa- 
tion from study. 

" Studying little. O God ! take thy place 
within my heart ! " 

These attacks of illness required frequent 
absence from Edinburgh in protracted tours. 
While the ostensible object was health, 
it is surprising to see how universally he 
made them the means of doing good. 
Absent once for two months, he kept a 
journal letter addressed to one of his 
daughters constantly on hand, and sent 
them thirty large folio journal letters. 
These are filled with the description of 
the natural scenery, the friends whom he 
visits, and the good which he is enabled to 
do. But amid all that he is seeing and 
doing, he does not forget even the smaller 
interests of home, and there is hardly a 
letter given us in which we do not trace the 
paternal solicitude for the souls of his 
children : " With my earnest wishes for 
you all, and more especially that your souls 
may prosper." 

We close our chapter with an extract 



330 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



from a comparison drawn at this time in 
Dr. Chalmers' life, between himself and 
Mr. Wilberforce, because it shows us what 
were his manners and personal appearance, 
with the general tone of his social char- 
acter. 

" Chalmers is stout and erect, with a 
broad countenance. Wilberforce minute 
and singularly twisted. Chalmers both in 
body and mind moves with a deliberate 
step. "Wilberforce, infirm as he is in his 
advanced years, flies about with astonishing 
activity. I often think particular men bear 
about with them analogy to particular 
animals. Chalmers is like a good tem- 
pered lion. Wilberforce is like a bee. 
Chalmers can say a pleasant thing now 
and then and laugh when he has said it, 
but in general he is grave, his thoughts 
grow to a great size before he utters them. 
Wilberforce sparkles with life and wit, and 
the characteristic of his mind is rapid pro- 
ductiveness. A man might be in Chal- 
mers' company for an hour without knowing 
who or what he was, — though in the end 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 331 



he would be sure to be detected by some 
unexpected display of powerful originality. 
. . . Chalmers knows how to veil himself 
in a desert cloud. Wilberforce is always 
in sunshine. . . . Both of them are broad 
thinkers and liberal feelers ; both of them 
are arrayed in humility, meekness, and 
charity ; both appear to hold self in little 
reputation ; both love the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and reverently acknowledge him to be their 
only Saviour." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

One of the objects of most engrossing 
interest to Dr. Chalmers now was the 
church extension. Wherever he had been 
settled, he had come personally in contact 
with so much religious destitution, that he 
was naturally led to a close examination of 
the state of the whole church. Since the 
days of the Reformation, the population of 
Scotland had nearly doubled, yet there had 



332 LIEE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



been no arrangements made for providing 
places of worship for the increasing de- 
mand. There was need of fourteen hun- 
dred ministers and churches; and as a 
matter of course in these waste places, all 
manner of crime, destitution, and misery- 
had sprung up. There was heathenism at 
home as well as abroad, and the more 
thoroughly the tour undertaken by Dr. Chal- 
mers made him acquainted with this fact, 
the more in earnest he became to apply at 
once the only remedy, — the extension of 
those church privileges which proclaim 
" Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life." 
It will be remembered by our readers, that 
when in Glasgow Dr. Chalmers commenced 
this enterprise in his " chapel of ease." 
This failed ; but his object was too good to 
admit of discouragement, and to this he 
now devoted much of the strength of his 
remaining life. Satisfied that of the work- 
ing class not one half attended worship 
anywhere, and not one eighth had sittings 
in a church, he felt that the charity which 
begins at home pointed out clearly what 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 333 



remained for him to do ; but, alas, it 
seemed as if the great importance of this 
evangelization was not the object of the 
Church Assembly, and Dr. Chalmers' first 
object was to wake it from its lethargy. 
In this he soon succeeded ; they appointed 
a large and effective committee to inquire 
into the subject, appointing Dr. Chalmers 
as the convener or head man. Without 
any loss of time he convened this com- 
mittee, and in a brief but pointed address 
laid before them in what their duty con- 
sisted. In this address he says : w I can 
truly affirm, that had I been left to make a 
choice among the countless diversities of 
well-doing, this is the one office that I 
should have selected as the most congenial 
to my taste, and the most fitted, by the 
high sense which I have of its importance, 
for the devotion of all my powers to it. 
Should God be pleased to grant me health, 
I shall henceforth consecrate much of my 
time and of my thoughts to the fulfilment 
of the high duties which the Assembly has 
devolved upon me. I have only to add, 



334 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



gentlemen, that I hope the committee will 
not relax in their exertions till churches 
have been so multiplied, and parochial 
charges so subdivided, that there will not 
be one poor family found in our land who 
might not, if they will, have entry and 
accommodation in a place of worship and 
religious instruction, with such a share in 
the personal attentions of a clergyman as 
to claim him for an acquaintance and a 
friend." 

Immediately involving himself in all the 
minutiae of business arrangements, Dr. 
Chalmers prepared circulars, addresses, and 
letters to those whose wealth and political 
station made their aid and influence of 
importance. Delegations asking funds 
from government went up to London. 
Dr. Chalmers accompanied it with a long 
and earnest letter to point out clearly the 
object of the society. The attention of the 
leading politicians was turned to it. and 
Dr. Chalmers had the delight of reading the 
following paragraph from the speech of the 
king in his address to his parliament : M I 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 835 



feel it also incumbent on me to call your 
most earnest attention to the condition of 
the Church of Scotland, and to the means 
by which it may be enabled to increase the 
opportunities of religious worship for the 
poorer classes of society in that part of the 
United Kingdom." The notice of parlia- 
ment and the royal favor were alike won, 
and one year of effort had not yet closed. 
How signally God appeared to be blessing 
the means used for the advancement of 
his own cause ! 

But now very unexpectedly arose oppo- 
sition from the bosom of the church itself. 
There was a strong and very important 
sect in the Scotch church called Dissenters, 
who wished no establishment and no sys- 
tem of patronage. This addition of so 
many new churches connected with the 
establishment would, of course, only increase 
the evil; they therefore began to offer a 
strong opposition to the whole thing. They 
held many and spirited meetings. Par- 
liament was besieged by petitions adverse 
to the new grant, and England had to look 



336 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



with astonishment upon the spectacle of a 
country injuring herself with religious dissen- 
sions in the nineteenth century. The argu- 
ments against the church extension were 
many and specious; among the most forcible 
was the undisputable fact, that the churches 
already in existence were not half filled. 

Of course, it would be of little interest and 
less profit for us to enter fully into these 
local church questions ; it is with the result 
that we have mainly to do. In the mean 
time while this conflict was going on, 
Dr. Chalmers and his old friend and coad- 
jutor, Mr. Collins of Glasgow, were giving 
the experiment a fair trial. 

Near Dr. Chalmers' residence in Edin- 
burgh, there was a suburban village called 
the Water of Leith. It was distinguished 
for its wickedness, and, consequently, its 
misery. Upon examination it was found, 
that, out of a population of 1,356, only 143 
had seats in any place of worship. The 
first thing Dr. Chalmers did here was to 
provide a missionary. This man visited 
from house to house, interesting the people 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 337 

in his ministrations, until he was repaid by 
a congregation of between three and four 
hundred on the Sabbath. The next thing 
was to build a church for them. Dr. Chal- 
mers proposed to thirty individuals to sub- 
scribe one hundred pounds (five hundred 
dollars each) for its erection ; but objections 
were raised, and the plan arrested for a 
while. In the mean time, Mr. Collins and 
his friends in Glasgow were more success- 
ful. In 1841, they had the satisfaction of 
seeing their twentieth new church com- 
pleted. The rapidity and ease with which 
this was done was probably the result of 
the labors of Dr. Chalmers years before, — 
the good seed which he had then sown 
springing up to bear fruit. Encouraged by 
this success, Dr. Chalmers resolved to de- 
pend no longer upon the aid which he had 
formerly hoped to derive from government. 
Government in England, like government 
everywhere else, was obliged to listen to 
both sides, and, no doubt, was in reality 
glad to make use of the arguments brought 
forward by the Dissenters as an excuse for 
22 



333 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



delay, at least in any official actions. Dr. 
Chalmers determined to move forward in 
his great work without them. He there- 
fore solicited from the General Assembly 
a sub-committee, who should be sent into 
every part of the kingdom to solicit funds, 
and accurately to ascertain its spiritual 
need. He had continued to make every 
exertion by means of his pen and the press ; 
but he was now convinced that "the living 
voice had a power which the dead letter 
can never exert," and this new committee 
were to use every power of eloquence in 
its behalf. The success of this experiment 
was immediate and wonderful. In May, 
1838, as the fruit of four years 3 labor, Dr. 
Chalmers announced to the General Assem- 
bly, that nearly two hundred churches had 
been added to the establishment, for the 
erection of which upward of two hundred 
thousand pounds had been contributed." 
Well might the prosecutor of this great 
enterprise say, as he announced these 
results : " What other single scheme of 
Christian benevolence in this country ever 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 339 



commanded so noble an income as fifty 
thousand pounds per annum ? . . . The 
work is still far from its termination. It 
has only, so to speak, begun. The cases of 
most hopeless and affecting destitution still 
remain to be overtaken. There are wastes 
of poverty, irreligion, and crime, which have 
still to be redeemed, and which nothing but 
the aggressive operation of a territorial 
establishment, wisely and strenuously and 
perseveringly conducted, is adequate to 
subdue ; and until every such wilderness is 
explored and reclaimed, and the whole 
country presents the aspect of a field which 
the Lord has blessed and is causing to 
bring forth the fruits of righteousness, the 
committee may not rest from their labors, 
nor the people from their zealous and hearty 
cooperation." 

About this time, Dr. Chalmers writes as 
follows : " It is a favorite speculation of 
mine, that if, spared to sixty, we then enter 
upon the seventh decade of human life, and 
that this, if possible, should be turned into 
the Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage, 



340 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and spent sabbatically as if on the shore of 
an eternal world, or in the outer courts, as 
it were, of the temple that is above, — the 
tabernacle in heaven. What enamours me 
all the more of this idea is, the retrospect of 
my mother's widow T hood. I long, if God 
should spare me for such an old age as she 
enjoyed, spent as if at the gates of heaven 
and with such a fund of inward peace and 
hope as made her nine years' widowhood a 
perfect feast and foretaste of the blessed- 
ness that awaits the righteous. His own 
seventh decade, his beautiful resting Sab- 
bath time, was now near. On the 17th of 
March, 1840, he would have numbered 
sixty years, and in the General Assembly of 
that year he w r ould lay his harness by, and 
claim the rest which he had won by many 
a hard fought field, — so he fondly hoped 
and planned, but God willed otherwise. 
There was never to come to him a time 
when his letters should be different from 
the following to Mrs. Chalmers : 

" I long for retirement from public busi- 
ness, but not being able to relinquish it 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 341 



at present, my object is to earn a right to 
retire by the dedication of this summer and 
the next to church extension in the country, 
after which it is my earnest wish and firm 
intention to devolve the work on others." 
Three days after this letter was written he 
began to " earn this right." He started on 
a tour through the south-western districts of 
Scotland, visiting ten Presbyteries, embrac- 
ing one hundred and seventy clergymen, 
and what was very difficult and arduous 
business to him, addressing the assem- 
bled towns, whose population flocked in 
crowds to hear him. He had always ac- 
customed himself to a thorough prepara- 
tion for whatever he was to do, and extem- 
poraneous speaking was laborious ; he was 
now to meet and combat with hostile ele- 
ments, and it is no wonder that he looked 
upon the attempt with apprehension. He 
was too much in earnest to be easily dis- 
couraged, and he therefore put self behind 
him, and entered into this new phase of the 
work. He kept a close journal of this tour, 
from which we can only make a few brief 



342 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



extracts : " A public breakfast of a hundred 
and twenty. The result of our operations 
amounts to the astonishing sum of two 
thousand pounds, a sum w^hich, if carried 
but proportionally to Inverness, would real- 
ize four hundred thousand pounds in the 
whole of Scotland. Addressed a full meet- 
ing at Narva on Saturday evening. . . . 
Went to the noble new and very handsome 
but withal greatly too large a church, 
holding not less than eighteen hundred 
people, yet very full notwithstanding. Never 
felt myself at greater ease and liberty, and 
am told that I never was in greater force." 
Again, in a very different strain, he writes: 
" Yet with all these materials for a cordial 
meeting, there was not one response of 
enthusiastic feeling to a single sentiment 
that was uttered ; that very first speech, a 
very fair one, fell still-born from my lips, — 
that in my second, when I attempted w r ith 
great and graphic power to portray the 
beauty of their country and their town, a 
few faint echoes of applause were all that 
I could elicit. ... A full church and an 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 343 



address of two hours. . . . Address upward 
of a thousand people at Peterhead." 

By dint of such strenuous personal exer- 
tions, Dr. Chalmers had hoped to raise 
one hundred thousand pounds, and add one 
hundred new churches to those already 
completed ; but he was doomed to be dis- 
appointed. " Better announce at once," 
he said, in his straightforward, manly way, 
when he presented his report to the General 
Assembly, "that this last has proved a 
most extraordinary year in the history of 
church extension, — in certain respects a 
year of great disaster to the cause, yet in 
others opening up the hope, nay, even 
realizing the tokens, of its coming enlarge- 
ment." The decisions in the church had 
been the cause of the expected one hundred 
thousand pounds' shrinking into scarcely 
forty thousand. In closing this report, 
Dr. Chalmers adds this paragraph with 
respect to himself personally. " The con- 
vener of your committee finds that the 
labors and requisite attentions of an office 
which he has now for six years so inade- 



344 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMEBS. 



quately filled, have become a great deal too 
much for him ; and for the sake of other 
labors arid other preparations more in keep- 
ing with the arduous work of a theological 
professorship, as well as with the powers 
and, he may add, the prospects and the 
duties, of advanced life, he begs that he 
may now be suffered to withdraw. . . . He 
to whom you assigned so high and honor- 
able an office as the prosecution of this 
object, and who now addresses you for the 
last time in the capacity of holder, will not 
let go the confident hope, that, under the 
smile of an approving heaven and with the 
blessing from on high, glorious things are 
yet in reserve for the parishes in Scotland ; 
and though his hand, now waxing feeble, 
must desist from the performance of other 
days, sooner will that hand forget its cun- 
ning, than he can forget or cease to feel for 
the church of his fathers. 55 

The Assembly valued the services of 
their champion too much willingly to 
release him, and they insisted on keeping 
him at the head of their committee until 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 345 



two hundred and twenty churches, more 
than one fifth of the whole number, were 
added to the establishment. 

Sach was the result of these six years, — 
a result which will live and grow long after 
that strenuous exertion is forgotten, and 
which will make the Scottish Church num- 
ber among its most ardent, benevolent, as 
well as its greatest men, — Dr. Chalmers. 
"We have before noticed him as a foreign 
missionary; it is most interesting to see 
him here so deeply engaged in the kindred 
subject of Home Missions. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

We come now to a very important series 
of events in Dr. Chalmers' life, — the dis- 
memberment of the Scottish Church, com- 
monly known as its Disruption. It would 
be a long, and, to most of our readers, an 
uninteresting task, to enter into the church 
history of Scotland. Probably most are 



346 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



aware of the peculiarly fervid and inde- 
pendent attachment of a great part of the 
nation to their own religious tenets. Tales 
of the suffering and death of a multitude of 
those holy covenanters, of whom the 
world was not worthy, have come to us, not 
only in history, but in those stories allowed 
to be a part of our childish lore because 
founded on fact. We have an almost in- 
tuitive love and respect for the sturdy, high- 
toned character of Scotch piety. It will, 
therefore, answer our present purpose fully, 
if we give to this great movement of the 
church the interest of our feelings, leaving 
the more complicated question of the con- 
nection between church and state to be set- 
tled by politicians and theologians of a 
graver cast. We find briefly stated in Dr. 
Hanna's biography the following occasion of 
the Disruption. " The church was rent asun- 
der. . . . What had divided them ? It was 
no difference as to any of the peculiar doc- 
trines of Christianity, for the creed and con- 
fession of both were identical. It was no 
difference as to church order or government, 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 847 

for the forms of worship and methods of 
rule and discipline were in each instance 
the same. Nor did the disruption spring 
from any peculiarity of Presbyterianism. for 
had the established church of Scotland 
been Episcopalian or Independent, the same 
kind of separation might have taken place. 
The disruption sprung solely and directly 
from the terms and conditions imposed by 
the state upon the church. The state 
demanded an unlimited submission to cer- 
tain sentences of the civil courts upon the 
broad and general ground, that such sub- 
mission formed an essential element in the 
bond of union between it and the church. 
The evangelical clergymen looked upon 
this demand as repugnant to the whole 
spirit, and contrary to the very letter, of the 
ancient constitution of their church : as one 
with which it would be both unlawful and 
inexpedient to comply ; and, conscientiously 
unable to render the required submission, 
they withdrew from the establishment.'' 

Dr. Chalmers, in writing to a friend in 
New York, just before the disruption, says : 



348 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



" Between four and five hundred of our 
best ministers have subscribed a memorial 
to government, by which they commit 
themselves to the relinquishment of the 
church's temporalities, if they are not per- 
mitted to hold them but on the condition 
of being subjected to the civil court in 
things spiritual." 

Perhaps this condition of things, so diffi- 
cult to be fully understood by the Amer- 
ican mind, accustomed as it is to the 
freedom and disconnection of church and 
state, may be better comprehended by the 
following event, which was one in a series 
of similar exactions. The town of Marnoch 
lies secluded and quiet far away from all 
the bustle and turmoil of the -world upon 
the banks of the Devon. For many years 
its inhabitants have been noted for their 
quiet and orderly behavior. They loved 
their kirk ; their manse was a holy place to 
them, for it was the home of their soul's 
teacher, and this teacher, too, was holy and 
beloved. But his hair had turned white 
among them ; his step grew slow, his voice 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 349 



feeble ; he was ready to be gathered, a sheaf 
fully ripe, — another and a younger man 
must minister unto them, and the Presby- 
tery sent them this man. For three long 
and weary years he preached to them, 
but he gained none of their hearts ; and the 
whole parish, with the exception of one 
man, the innkeeper, signed a petition for his 
removal. Out of three hundred heads of 
families whose names were on the commun- 
ion roll, 261 signed this petition. 

The Presbytery immediately removed him, 
and the patrons sent them another candi- 
date ; but the former one, a Mr. Edwards, 
applied for and obtained from the civil 
court — the court of session — an interdict 
prohibiting the Presbytery from proceeding 
with the settlement of the new candidate, 
and, moreover, ordered that Mr. Edwards 
should be taken upon trial. Ministers 
were found to carry this order into execu- 
tion, and on the appointed day proceeded 
to the ordination. 

" Thursday the 21st of January, 1841," says 
an eyewitness of the scene, "was the day 



350 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



appointed for this extraordinary ordination. 
A heavy snow-gale had passed over the 
country, choking up the public roads, and 
covering the earth to a depth of two feet or 
upward. Stormy, however, as Wednesday 
had been, and few more stormy days had 
been experienced for many years ; deep as 
the snow lay on the face of the earth, and 
gathered as it was in large and almost 
impassable wreaths on every highway and 
byway in Banff and Aberdeenshire, — early 
on Thursday morning, little bands of men 
from all the neighboring parishes, moving 
on in lines, the stoutest breaking up a path 
for his companions who followed him, were 
seen wending their way to the church of 
Marnoch. In two or three carriages, drawn 
by four horses each, the clerical actors and 
the law agents were conveyed to the same 
spot. A singular assembly w T as gathered 
to greet their approach. Upon the tram- 
pled and sloshy ground around the kirk, 
two thousand men were standing. The 
church doors were opened, and the church 
was instantly and densely filled; thick 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 351 



groups gathering about the doors and win- 
dows, who could not obtain admittance. 
The lower part of the church was reserved 
for the parishioners, and the gallery for 
strangers. 

" The court was opened by prayer. The 
forms of ordination proceeded. Mr. Duncan, 
in behalf of the parishioners, read a protest 
against the ordination, closing thus: 'As 
agent for the elders, male heads of families 
and communicants of Marnoch, I have 
now only to say, that they take no further 
part in these unconstitutional proceedings. 
They wait a better time and another court. 
They can have no further business here ; 
and they will, I believe, all accompany me 
from church, and leave you to force a min- 
ister upon a parish against the people's 
will, but with scarcely one of the parish- 
ioners to witness the deed.' The people of 
Marnoch immediately arose from their seats 
in the body of the church, — old men with 
heads white as the snow that lay deep on 
their native hills, the middle aged and the 
young, who were but rising into life. Gath- 



352 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



ering up their Bibles and psalmbooks, 
which in country churches often remain 
there for half a century, they left the church 
once free to them and theirs, but now 
given up to the spoiler. They went out, 
many in tears, and all in grief. No word 
of disrespect or reproach escaped their lips. 
They went under the strong conviction that 
their cause was with the Most Powerful, 
and that with him rested the redress of all 
their wrongs. . . . "When they left the 
church, the people of Marnoch assembled 
in a snowy hollow at the foot of the hill on 
which the church was built, and, having 
listened to a short address from Mr. Dun- 
can, in which he strongly urged that every 
thing should be done with order, unity, and 
peace, they separated, and with a rare exer- 
cise of self-denial, retired to their different 
homes. The place left vacant by them 
was immediately filled by a rush of stran- 
gers from without, and a disgraceful scene 
of riotous disorder ensued, which it required 
the presence of a magistrate to check. 
When peace was restored, the act of ordi- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 353 



nation was completed. It was an ordina- 
tion altogether unparalleled in the history 
of the church, performed by a Presbytery 
of suspended clergymen on a call by a 
single communicant, in face of the stren- 
uous opposition of a united Christian con- 
gregation, in opposition to the express 
injunction of the General Assembly, at the 
sole bidding and under the sole authority of 
the Court of Sessions." 

In all the troubles in which the church 
w T as now involved, Dr. Chalmers had but 
one wish, to take full share of the responsi- 
bilities, and to place himself in the front of 
the battle. Every resource was tried: 
petitions to assembled Parliament, depu- 
tations to wait personally upon the lead- 
ing politicians, letters to the ministers, 
speeches, and private influence ; but all in 
vain. Government was determined, that, 
right or wrong, the civil power should be 
first and greatest, over and above even the 
spiritual, in the island of Great Britain. 
At this juncture, Dr. Chalmers, in address- 
ing a meeting, says : " Be it known unto all 
23 



354 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



men, then, that we have no wish for a 
disruption ; but neither do we stand in over- 
whelming dread of it. We have no ambi- 
tion, as has been pleasantly said of us, for 
martyrdoms of any sort ; but neither will we 
shrink from the hour or the day of trial. 
In short, let it be distinctly known, both 
over the country at large, and more espe- 
cially in the camp of our adversaries, that, 
whatever misgivings there may be in other 
quarters, among us there are no falterings, 
no fears. Should what has been termed 
the crisis arrive, we know of a clear, an 
honorable, and withal a Christian outgoing, 
confident in the smile of approving heaven, 
and that confidence not abated when we 
look around on the goodly spectacle of our 
friends and fellow Christians, — the best 
and worthiest of Scotland's sons, — in readi- 
ness to hail and to harbor the men who are 
willing to give up all for the sake of con- 
science and of Christian liberty. The God 
whom they serve will not leave them 
without help or without a home." " I 
think," he writes again shortly after, " the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 355 

present state of things is eminently fitted to 
spiritualize our clergymen by causing them 
to sit loose of all earthly dependences. I 
think I can perceive the effect on some of 
the brethren, and am informed that it tells 
sensibly on the pulpit ministrations of 
many. May he who can bring good out of 
evil, in his own good, however mysterious 
way. convert our present troubles into the 
means of a signal revival of Christianity in 
the towns and parishes of Scotland.*' 

The most prudent step now remaining to 
be taken was to call an assembly of the 
evangelical ministers of Scotland to meet 
at Edinburgh on the 17th of November, 
there to decide upon the most Christian 
and necessary course. At the appointed 
time and place the meeting was held. 
Among the opening services was a dis- 
course by Dr. Chalmers from the text. 
" Unto the upright there arises light in 
darkness/' Eloquent passages from this 
might easily be quoted; but we have only 
room to mark its effects. In the evening 
the Convocation assembled for business in 



356 



LIFE QE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



a small, obscure chapel, and it was found 
that four hundred and fifty ministers were 
present, — a larger number than had ever 
met for any religious purpose before in 
Scotland, and including among its mem- 
bers many from the remotest parts of the 
country. Dr. Chalmers took the chair, and 
briefly stated the object of the meeting. 
This clearly explained, in all the meetings 
during the coming week, the future was 
steadily contemplated, and minute plans 
for its operations and regulations made, in 
all of which the wisdom and sagacity of 
Dr. Chalmers were very apparent. A series 
of resolutions was at last drawn up, the 
concluding sentence of which pledged 
those whose names were signed to it, " to 
give up the civil advantages which they 
could no longer hold in consistency with 
the free and full exercise of their spiritual 
functions, and to cast themselves upon 
such provisions as God in his providence 
might offer." 

The next forenoon after these resolutions 
were prepared, Dr. Chalmers asked " how 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 3o7 



many names had been appended ? " When 
told that already there were more than 
three hundred, he broke forth into the excla- 
mation, u Then are we more than Gid- 
eon's army — a most hopeful omen." Step- 
ping forward into the centre of the group, 
while every nerve quivered and thrilled 
with the strongest emotion, he continued, 
addressing those who were to share with 
him the privations of the disruption : " For 
throwing up our livings, for casting our- 
selves up with such unequal odds into so 
great a conflict, men may call us enthu- 
siasts, but enthusiasm is a noble virtue, 
rarely to be found in times of prosperity ; 
it flourishes in adversity, it kindles in the 
hour of danger. Persecution but serves to 
quicken the energy of its purpose. It 
swells in proud integrity, and, great in the 
purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance 
amid a host of enemies.' 5 

The Convocation broke up after a sitting 
of six days, and the clergymen once more 
returned to their homes, so soon to be theirs 
no more. The meeting of the General 



358 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



Assembly was to take place on the 16th of 
the coming May. Every day was precious ; 
for there was an immense deal to be done 
before that time. At the ensuing Par- 
liament, the decision was against the church. 
There was now no longer doubt or hesi- 
tation, and Dr. Chalmers went to work 
as only he knew how, dividing the work- 
ingmen into three committees, who should 
by previous attention to the coming wants, 
render every thing quiet and satisfactory at 
the time of the Assembly. This committee 
were divided into the financial, the archi- 
tectural, and the statistical. Dr. Chal- 
mers put himself at the head of the finan- 
cial, and immediately brought all his powers 
of body and mind to the task of providing 
churches, — salaries and homes for the hun- 
dreds of clergymen so soon to be destitute. 
The heading of the circular which he drew 
up and put at once into extensive circula- 
tion is well worthy of being remembered. 
" Surely I will not come into the tabernacle 
of my house, nor go up into my bed ; I 
will not give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



359 



to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for 
the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God 
of Jacob. The God of heaven, he will 
prosper us ; therefore, we his servants will 
arise and build." Men of talent and in- 
fluence were sent around to address the 
people all over Scotland, and in a few days 
the result of this and the circular was ap- 
parent. " Money has come in upon us," 
says Dr. Chalmers, " like a set rain, at the 
rate of five thousand dollars a day." . . . 
" I am hopeful," he writes to Mr. Lenox, 
"that, ere the summer is ended, we may 
number a thousand associations, or as 
many as there are parishes in Scotland ; so 
that, unless there be an attempt to crush 
us by persecution, I have no fear of our 
getting on." 

It seems rather singular, that, in the face 
of such consistent and efficient proceedings, 
government should remain in a state of 
entire unconcern, and some clergymen with 
many less concerned lookers-on profess no 
faith in the intention of any of the clergy 
to secede. " Mark my words," writes one 



360 LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



of the best informed and most sagacious 
citizens of Edinburgh, a day or two before 
the disruption, " Mark my words ; not forty 
of them will go out." But the day of trial 
came quickly on, and, with thanks to Dr. 
Chalmers, the whole matter fairly and 
fully before the public mind, — a feeling of 
intense expectation and interest was felt all 
over Scotland. A greater number of stran- 
gers than were ever known to come at one 
time to Edinburgh, came pouring in, a few 
days before the Assembly. We give the 
following account of this very interesting 
meeting from one who was undoubtedly 
present. 

" Thursday the 18th of May, the day 
named for the meeting of the General 
Assembly, rose upon the city with a dull 
and heavy dawn. So early in the morning 
as between four and five o'clock, the doors 
of the church in which the Assembly was 
to convene opened to admit those who 
hastened to take up the most favorable 
positions, in which they were content to 
remain for nine weary hours. As the day 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 361 



wore on, it became evident that the ordi- 
nary business of the day had been sus- 
pended ; yet the crowds that gathered in the 
streets wore no gay or holiday appearance. 
As groups of acquaintances met and com- 
mingled, their conversation was obviously 
of a grave and earnest cast. Toward 
midday, the throne room at Holyrood, in 
which the Marquis of Bute as Lord High 
Commissioner, held his first levee, was filled 
with a numerous assemblage of noblemen, 
clergymen, naval and military officers, the 
city magistrates, and country gentlemen, 
from all parts of Scotland. A portrait of 
of King Wiliam III. hung upon the wall of 
the room opposite to the spot on which her 
Majesty's representative was standing. The 
throng of the levee was at its height, when, 
loosened somehow from its holdings, this 
portrait fell heavily upon the floor, and as 
it fell, a voice was heard exclaiming, 
' There goes the Revolution Settlement.' 
"When the levee closed, the customary 
procession formed itself. In his state car- 
riage, accompanied by a splendid cortege 



362 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and escorted by a troop of cavalry, the com- 
missioners proceeded to the High Church. 
The service was conducted by the Rev. 
Dr. Welsh, the moderator of the preceding 
assembly, which was made all the more 
impressive by the frequent allusions to the 
event by which it was to be so immediately 
followed. Elsewhere within the assembly 
hall, as hour after hour passed by, the 
strained feelings of the multitude by whom 
every niche of the sitting and standing 
ground had for so long a time been occupied, 
was beginning occasionally to relax. At 
last, however, the rapid entrance of a large 
body of ministers into the space railed off 
below for members, told that the exercises 
at St. Giles were over. Every symptom of 
languor at once gave way, and expectation 
was at its utmost stretch. Dr. Welsh, the 
moderator, entered and took the chair. 
Soon afterward, his Grace, the Lord High 
Commissioner, was announced, and the 
whole assemblage rose and received him 
standing. Solemn prayer was then offered 
up. The members having resumed their 



LIFE OE THOMAS CHALMERS. 



363 



seats, Dr. Welsh rose. By the eager press- u 
ure forward, — the hush! hush! that burst 
from so many lips, the anxiety to hear 
threatened to defeat itself. The disturbance 
lasted but a moment. 6 Fathers and breth- 
ren,' said Dr. Welsh, and now every sylla- 
ble fell upon the ear amid the breathless 
silence that prevailed ; ' this is the time 
for making up the roll ; but in consequence 
of certain proceedings affecting our rights 
and privileges, I must protest against our 
proceeding further.' " 

We cannot spare room, to transfer all the 
protest which followed. Its spirit and pur- 
pose may be gathered perhaps from this 
single sentence: "We protest, that in the 
circumstances in which we are placed, it 
is, and shall be lawful for us, to withdraw 
to a separate place of meeting along with 
all w 7 ho adhere to us, maintaining with us 
the Confession of Faith and standards of 
the Church of Scotland, for separating in 
an orderly manner from the establishment." 
Having finished reading the Protest, Dr. 
Welsh laid it upon the table, turned and 



384 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



bowed respectfully to the Commissioner, 
left the chair, and proceeded along the 
aisle to the door of the church. Dr. Chal- 
mers had been standing immediately on 
the left. He looked vacant and abstracted 
during the reading of the Protest, but 
Dr. Welsh's movement awakened him 
from the reverie. Seizing eagerly upon 
his hat, he hurried after him with the air of 
one impatient to be gone. Mr. Campbell, 
Dr. Gordon, Dr. Macdonald, and Dr. Mac- 
farlan followed him. The effect upon the 
audience was overwhelming. At first a 
cheer burst from the gallery, but it was 
almost instantly and spontaneously re- 
strained. It was felt by all to be an ex- 
pression of feeling unsuited to the occasion ; 
it was checked, in many cases, by an emo- 
tion too deep for any other utterance than 
the fall of sad and silent tears. The whole 
audience was now standing, gazing in 
silence upon the scene. Man after man, 
row after row, moved along the aisle till 
the benches on the left, lately so crowded, 
showed scarce an occupant. More than 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



365 



four hundred ministers, and a still larger 
number of elders, had withdrawn. 

A vast number of people stood congre- 
gated in St. George street, crowding in 
upon the church doors. When the deed 
was done within, the intimation of it passed 
like lightning through the mass without, 
and when the forms of their most venerated 
clergymen were seen emerging from the 
church, a loud and irrepressible cheer burst 
from their lips and echoed through the now 
half empty Assembly Hall. There was no 
design on the part of the clergymen to 
form into a procession ; but they were forced 
to it by the narrowness of the lane opened 
for their egress through the heart of the 
crowd. Falling into a line, and walking 
three abreast, they formed into a column 
which extended a quarter of a mile and 
more. As they moved along to the new 
hall prepared for their reception, very dif- 
ferent feelings prevailed among the people 
who lined the streets, and thronged each 
window and balcony on either side. Some 
gazed in stupid wonder; the majority 



366 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



looked on in silent admiration. A few 
were seen to smile as if in mockery, while 
here and there, as the child or wife of some 
outgoing minister caught sight of a hus- 
band or a father's form accomplishing an 
act which was to leave his family homeless 
and unprovided, warm tears formed, which, 
as if ashamed of them, the hand of faith 
was in haste to wipe away. 

Lord Jeffrey, the celebrated writer, was 
sitting quietly in his study in Edinburgh 
reading. One burst into his room, with 
" Well, what do you think of it? more than 
four hundred of them are actually out." 
The book was flung aside, and, springing 
to his feet, Lord Jeffrey exclaimed : " I am 
proud of my country ; there is not another 
country upon earth where such a deed 
could have been done." 

The large hall at Canonmills, prepared 
for the new Assembly, had been filled from 
an early hour in the morning in the part 
allotted to the public. It was fitted up 
so as to receive three thousand auditors. 
When the procession from St. Andrews' 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 367 



church had arrived, and the space marked 
off for elders and ministers was fully occu- 
pied, Dr. Welsh opened the meeting with 
a prayer and address. Immediately after 
Dr. Chalmers took the chair, and proposed 
another prayer and the singing of a psalm. 
The psalm selected to be sung commenced 
with the verse,— 

" send thy light forth, and thy truth, 
Let them be guides to me. 
And bring me to thy holy hill. 
Even "where thy dwelling be." 

As the vast multitude stood up to sing 
these words, and as the swell of three 
thousand voices rose up in melody to 
heaven, a sudden burst of sunlight filled the 
building, and there were some who thought 
of Dr. Chalmers* text six months before : 
" Unto the upright there arises light in the 
darkness." 

They then proceeded to business, and by 
this act they voluntarily relinquished more 
than one hundred thousand pounds, five 
hundred thousand dollars a year, for the 



363 



LIFE OP THOMAS CHALMERS, 



sake of conscience and the good of the 
church. Four hundred and seventy clergy- 
men were left without incomes for themselves 
or homes for their families, or churches for 
their flocks : meeting in the condition of a 
complete ecclesiastical organization, under- 
taking all the duties of the most arduous 
ministry at home, as well as the support of 
extensive operations abroad. 

After a long, unanimous, and active 
meeting, the new Assembly broke up, 
and the ministers returned to leave the 
homes and hearths which had been theirs 
for so many years. It would be very in- 
teresting, did our limits allow, to follow the 
Free Church in its earlier trials and suffer- 
ings : but we must pass over many thrilling 
anecdotes which are related of privation 
and suffering, and confine ourselves strictly 
to Dr. Chalmers' immediate share in the 
movement. Six hundred congregations 
were to be supplied with a ministry, and 
many new churches to be built. Writing 
and preaching, soliciting funds, and keeping 
up the heart and courage of the church. — 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 369 

such was the work to which Dr. Chalmers 
now devoted himself. Opening his own 
dwelling-house at Morningside for a church, 
h,e planted himself midway upon the stair- 
case, and preached Sabbath after Sabbath. 
A deputation was sent to America to ask 
aid from our churches. As Dr. Chalmers 
was so well known from his published 
works, and was so much respected here, it 
was proposed he should come over in 
person ; but he objected, for the reason that 
he was needed at home ; and that if the 
Free Church was to be endowed, it must 
be done principally from Scotland herself. 
He constantly held meetings for instructing 
his special agents ; sometimes these meet- 
ings amounted to fourteen hundred persons ; 
beside these, he. preached frequently him- 
self. The following is his own account of 
one of these occasions. He was to address 
a Free Church congregation at Banchory, a 
short distance from Aberdeen : " I have 
expressed my preference for a rural Sabbath. 
But little thought I, that notwithstanding 
the day and the hour, and even the rain of 
24 



370 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



this day, there were to assemble six or 
seven thousand, — some say ten thousand 
people, And so the pulpit had to be 
carried half a mile from the Free Church 
tent to the front door of Banchory House, 
where I could preach under cover, with a 
lobby full of grandees behind me, and such 
a multitude before me as presented what 
the opium eater calls an ocean of human 
faces. The people occupied all the ground 
before the house and all the grassy lawn, 
wet as it was, to the trees whose foliage 
gave back the sound, so that the echo came 
back upon our ears and prolonged each 
line so as to compel a pause for the pre- 
centor, in a way that was somewhat ludi- 
crous. Nevertheless I was completely 
heard, and, having Mr. Archibald a proba- 
tioner to conduct all but the sermon, I got 
over the whole with marvellously little 
fatigue." " The breathless interest, 5 ' said 
one of his hearers, " with which the people 
listened, was very striking; and the blessed 
fruits of that discourse will be known only 
at the great day." 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



371 



It will be very interesting to look now 
for a brief space from Br Chalmers as the 
renowned champion of religious liberty, to 
Dr. Chalmers as the humble and sincere 
Christian. The public man is always 
before us ; but it is not often we have access 
to so much of the private character, the 
inner and spiritual life, as we are allowed 
in this case, especially where we find that 
life unseen and unjudged by man, so pure 
and simple, so fall of sincere, hearty piety. 
His journal, often discontinued for months, 
was resumed during this period of church 
disturbance. It would almost seem as if he 
used it as a means of self-knowledge and 
self-control. Writing thus freely in his 
journal, he says : 

" Sadly exercised with adverse tidings 
from London anent the church, and all that 
is heavenly takes flight by giving way to 
other themes. . . . To-day there is an open- 
ing in church matters. I long for my de- 
liverance from the turmoil of public life. 
Oh do thou, the God of peace, sanctify me 
wholly and enable me to cut off the right 



372 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMEKS. 



hand, or pluck out the right eye. . . . 
Much weighed with public difficulties. A 
great infusion of religious thought, and 
feeling too. . . . Much exercised by the 
conflicting church politics around me, and 
feel the earthliness of these engrossments. 
Oh that I had exercised myself more unto 
godliness, and could maintain a godly frame 
all the day long! . . . Grieved by news 
from London ; reports from Edinburgh, &c. 
Teach me the lesson, O heavenly Father! 
to be still and know that thou art God. 
Going on leisurely, I think feebly, with I 
hope my last controversial pamphlet on the 
church question. Have much to learn, and 
desire to grow in the practical and experi- 
mental knowledge of Christ. . . . Desire to 
roll all over upon God. . . . Let me know 
Y\ 7 hat it is to realize experimental religion. 
Oh, be it my daily task, my hourly exercise, 
my perennial enjoyment, . . . The church 
question drawing to a crisis, and I desire to 
cast all upon God, with simple faith in his 
message of reconciliation. Give wisdom 
and grace, O heavenly Father! and cause 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 373 



good to come out these thick coming events 
to our beloved land. . . . The affairs of the 
church thickening, and I am sadly exer- 
cised by the urgencies that I should again 
mingle in the fray to the hazard of my 
health and serious injury of my literary 
undertakings. I pray for thy church, O 
God! Make clear the path of duty. Ar- 
rested by a sense of my ungodliness while 
riding. Prayed for living water, that I 
might thirst no more. . . . The church 
matters seem fast hastening to a crisis, and 
a disruption seems inevitable. I pray for 
counsel and fortitude, and all the proper 
virtues for such an emergency, from on 
high." Dr. Chalmers, just before the Con- 
vocation, writes a prayer, a part of which 
breathes this spirit. " Let me not be an 
instrument, O God ! in any way of disap- 
pointing or misleading my brethren, Let 
me not, in this crisis of our church's history, 
urge a sacrifice upon others which I could 
not most cheerfully share with them. I 
pray for a right and discerning spirit in 
this matter, O God ! " 



374 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



About this time, being absent on a tour 
asking for funds for the Free Church, he 
writes to Mrs. Chalmers : " I regret exceed- 
ingly that this bustling, engrossing work 
should so encroach on the higher occupa- 
tions of good reading and good thinking. 
I do hope to make my escape from it, and 
yet I cannot but feel that I have a call to 
my present doings. My heart is drawn 
towards the sacrificing ministers. I do 
hope that an adequate provision will be 
set up, not only for supporting, but extend- 
ing, the Free Church. Meanwhile, let us 
cast our care and confidence upon God. 
To him I would commit all our interests, 
both for time and for eternity." 

"What a simple and beautiful record of 
the pious trustfulness of a good man ! 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 375 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

It can hardly have failed to have at- 
tracted the attention of even the most 
superficial reader, that the great and lead- 
ing object of Dr. -Chalmers through life 
after his conversion was the evangelization 
and improvement of the masses. He was 
eminently the friend of the poor ; and as he 
began his religious life with strenuous ex- 
ertions on their behalf, so now that its 
earthly period was drawing to a close, he 
returned with the warmth and ardor of a 
first love to this same object. Before the 
Disruption, he had labored diligently in the 
matter of church extension; that was now 
at an end. With the organization of the 
Free Church, and by the help of her susten- 
tation fund, he had still hoped to further 
this same object ; but the fund, though large, 
could not more than answer its own pur- 
pose. He then joined heart and hand in 
the Evangelical Alliance, hoping that by 



376 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the union of so many Christian sects much 
might be accomplished. But no ; still 
every society or union found in its own 
immediate objects of interest all to which 
it could properly attend ; and in the mean- 
time, fo use Dr. Chalmers' own glowing 
words, " There were myriads of immortal, 
yet perishing because neglected, spirits in 
Edinburgh and Glasgow, and other large 
towns in Scotland, as well as in hundreds 
of outfields throughout the country at large, 
which would require the united efforts of 
all the wise and good in our land for many 
years to come. Why put off for another 
hour, we do not say the fulfilment, but at 
all events the commencement, of this glo- 
rious enterprise ; for in truth this, though 
forming the greatest moral problem of our 
day, has scarcely been entered upon ? ?? 
" Why put off for another hour? " It was 
upon this principle that "Dr. Chalmers 
entered almost alone upon the amelioration 
of the most miserable, wicked, and forlorn 
of all the poor of Scotland : the poor dwell- 
ings in the "West Port of Edinburgh. One 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



377 



third of the population of this part of the 
city were unconnected with any Christian 
church, and yet Dr. Chalmers now dwelt 
among them. " I have determined.*' he 
says, writing to Mr. Lenox, July 26, 18-44, 
M to assume a poor district of two thousand 
people, and superintend it myself, though 
it be a work greatly too much for my 
declining strength and means; yet such do 
I hold to be the efficiency of the method, 
with the Divine blessing, that perhaps as 
the concluding act of my public life, I shall 
make the effort to exemplify what as yet 
I have only expounded.'' . . . Again he 
writes at a later date : i; Such is the value 
and importance which I attach to this 
enterprise, that now I have done all I can 
for the Free Church at large, I mean to give 
up all general business, and, with God's 
help, will devote my remaining strength to 
the special object which I have now ex- 
plained. . . . But the most I can 'person- 
ally undertake to do is to work off a model 
or normal specimen of the process by which 
a single locality might be reclaimed from 
this vast and desolate wilderness." 



378 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



To direct public attention to this object 
by four lectures illustrating the efficiency 
of local schools and churches was his first 
movement, and to urge the earnest cooper- 
ation of all Christians in this good work. 

West Port had been noted throughout 
the world for the number and awfulness of 
the crimes committed within its bounds. 
Mulders, the enormity of which had sent a 
shudder throughout all Scotland, had been 
perpetrated again and again. Robbery, 
drunkenness, profligacy in its worst and 
most shameless forms, were almost the 
only manner of life of the inhabitants, and 
this, too, in the heart of the Christian city 
of Edinburgh. Out of a population of 
two thousand, only one quarter went to 
any church. Out of 411 children, 290 
were growing up entirely untaught, and 
more than one fourth of the whole popu- 
lation were on the poor-roil. On one of 
the first visits of Dr. Chalmers' agent to 
these families he found, among other in- 
stances of depravity, a tenement of from 
twelve to twenty apartments, where every 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



379 



human being, man and woman, were so 
drank they could not hear their own squalid 
infants crying in vain to them for food. 
He purchased some bread for the children, 
and entering a few minutes afterward a 
neighboring dram shop, he found a half 
drunk mother driving a bargain for more 
whiskey with the very bread which her 
famishing children should have been eating. 
He went once to a funeral, and found the 
company assembled all so drank around 
the corpse that he had to go and beg- 
some of the sober neighbors to come and 
carry the coffin to the grave. To such a 
population, Dr. Chalmers was now to offer 
the bread of life. 

He divided West Port into twenty dis- 
tricts of twenty families each, and appointed 
a visitor — a name given to the individuals 
who had become interested in his object by 
means of his public lectures and private 
conversations — to visit each of these 
families once a week, attempting by kind 
attentions and pleasant services to gain 
their good-will and perhaps their affection, 



380 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



and by praying with them when allowed, 
distributing tracts and copies of the Scrip- 
tures, and by religious conversation, to 
strive to awaken in them at least a con- 
sciousness of their being immortal souls. 
A printed slip drawn up with cave by 
Dr. Chalmers, explaining the objects of the 
visit, was to be left at every house into 
which the visitor gained access. 

Every Saturday night the visitors were to 
assemble at Dr.. Chalmers' house to give 
an account of all they had seen or done 
through the week. As soon as possible, a 
school-room was obtained. The room 
chosen was a large, low, old tannery loft 
lying in the very worst part of the district, 
at the end of the very street where the 
celebrated ruffian Burke had drawn his 
victims down to be murdered, in order to 
sell their bodies to the surgeon for dissec- 
tion. The ceiling of the room could be 
touched by many of the tall, brawny Scots 
who were to assemble there ; the floor was 
rough, and stained with every mark of 
disuse and neglect. Even the pure light of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 381 



heaven seemed to be frightened away from 
its close and dismal regions, for it streamed 
in feebly through the small, misshapen 
windows, and fell upon rough, unplastered 
walls, grim with the mould and decay of 
years. The frequent calls of the visitors 
had awakened some interest or curiosity in 
the minds of those who were unaccus- 
tomed to a kind word or look; and now 
when an invitation to all to meet him in 
the old tannery loft came from Dr. Chal- 
mers, many who had not even known 
of his existence a few weeks ago were 
ready to go up and see, at least, what 
the strange man might want. When the 
day came, Dr. Chalmers found there as- 
sembled more genuine West Porters than 
had ever met together in one place before. 
Addressing them as men and brethren, he 
stated to them clearly and in a straight- 
forward, distinct manner, what he meant 
to do for and among them, and invited 
their cordial cooperation. 

The school was opened with sixty-four 
day and fifty-seven evening scholars under 



3S2 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the care of a most excellent teacher ; and in 
the coarse of a single year not less than 
250 were in attendance, most of them from 
West Port. 

On the forenoon of the 22d of December, 
Dr. Chalmers himself opened the tan loft 
as a place of public worship. We hear 
nothing of the number which his fame 
brought together ; but in the evening of the 
same day we find his substitute preaching 
in the presence of about a dozen adults, 
mostly old women. We cannot but won- 
der whether a foreshadowing of failure did 
not fall heavily that night upon the philan- 
thropist's heart. Undismayed, he went to 
work with redoubled energy ; the services 
were continued three times every Sabbath, 
the visiting gone over with greater zeal, 
and the services of an able and efficient 
minister engaged. In a short time a 
library, a savings bank, a washing house, 
and an industrial female school followed, 
and all succeeded. Dr. Chalmers, unwilling 
to trust so important an enterprise to any 
one, notwithstanding his failing health and 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



383 



pressure of employment, preached frequent- 
ly in the hall. 

" There may," says Dr. Hanna, " have 
been many other works upon his hands 
upon which a larger amount of labor was 
bestowed, but there was none over which 
so many prayers were offered." It lets us 
into his secret feelings, and tells us of the 
depth of that peculiar interest with which 
he watched the progress of this undertaking, 
when we find him in his study at Morning 
Side on Sabbath morn or Sabbath even- 
ing penning such prayers as this : " It is 
yet the day of small things with us ; and 
I, in all likelihood, shall be taken off ere 
that much greater progress is made in the 
advancement of the blessed gospel through- 
out the land. But give me the foretaste 
and the confident foresight of this great 
Christian and moral triumph before I die. 
... Be my help and adviser, O God ! and 
tell me by thy Word and thy Spirit what 
I ought to do. O my God! give me the 
power of ordering matters aright in West 
Port; let all be peace and harmony, and 



334 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



no confusion there ; direct all my footsteps 
in this undertaking. ... It is still but a 
day of small things. O do thou brighten 
it onward even unto the latter day glory ! " 

There were, however, to come before 
this " glory," days and months of depression 
and gloom. Days, when all the faith and 
trust of the Christian were required, and all 
the sanguine cheerfulness of his natural 
temperament. A church was built, and the 
services in the old tan loft were exchanged 
for those of the neat new edifice, where, on 
the 25th of April, Dr. Chalmers adminis- 
tered the first sacrament. On the following 
Monday, he thus pours forth to the chosen 
minister of the church, Mr. Tasker, the joy 
which must find vent in words, as well as 
in the thank-offering of prayer. 

" I have got now,'' he says, " the desire 
of my heart: the church is finished, the 
schools are flourishing, our ecclesiastical 
machinery is at work, is about complete, 
and all in good working order ; God has 
indeed heard my prayer, and I could now 
lay down my head in peace and die/' 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 385 



Again, writing to his friend, Mr. Lennox, 
he says : " I wish to communicate what is 
to me the most joyful event of my life. I 
have been intent for more than thirty years 
on the comparison of the territorial experi- 
ment, and I have now to bless God for the 
consummation of it. Our church was opened 
on the loth of February, and in one month 
my anxieties respecting an attendance have 
been put at rest. Five sixths of the sittings 
have been let ; but the best part of it is that 
three fourths of these are from the West 
Port, a locality which, two years ago, had 
not one in ten church-goers from the whole 
population. I presided myself, on Sabbath 
last, over its first sacrament. There were 
132 communiants, and one hundred of 
them from West Port." 

Two years, then, had passed since the 
enterprise had commenced, and lo ! the 
transformation which had already taken 
place. A neat church, a stated ministry, a 
sacrament, and where once only one eighth 
of the whole population attended any place 
of public worship, now one hundred com- 
25 



386 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



municants sat down to this first sacred 
supper. Three fourths of the children, 
untaught and wholly uncared for, run wild 
about the streets, learning every sin with 
which the world is cursed. Now three 
fourths were in close and constant atten- 
dance upon the daily school, well taught 
and well provided for. "We cannot resist 
the temptation to give our readers a little 
clearer idea of the change which had taken 
place, by placing before them extracts from 
the reports of one of the teachers of this 
school. 

" We have upward of a hundred girls at 
this school, and I have no recollection of 
any thing so sudden as the transition in 
these girls from the time of their first 
raggedness, as they were found running 
about the street in that destitute locality, 
to the personal cleanliness and respecta- 
bility which they now exhibit. Their 
appearance, indeed, is altogether delightful. 
The boys, I may state, have not made so 
large an advance as the girls in point of 
appearance ; but, altogether, the school 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 387 



presents a most attractive and delightful 
appearance." With such a change in 
dress, and consequent personal habits of the 
children, a change for the better must of 
course have been felt at home, and we are 
not surprised to hear that Sunday was 
becoming a Scotch Sabbath, a quiet day of 
rest and worship in the wicked West Port ; 
that the dram shops were beginning to die 
out for want of custom, and that under the 
watchful eye of the sanitary board, whose 
special cooperation Dr. Chalmers had earn- 
estly sought, disease and death were be- 
coming less frequent visitors to their former 
chosen haunts. 

Di\ Chalmers' connection with West 
Port was now drawing to its close. God 
in mercy granted his prayer. He saw with 
his own eyes the success and fulfilment of 
what he had so often termed his "dearest 
earthly wish." Seated at that communion 
table with the one hundred West Port 
communicants, who can ever know the 
intense joy and gratitude with which he 
returned thanks to him, that so many of 
the lost had been found ? 



388 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



As it is only with Dr. Chalmers' imme- 
diate connection with West Port that our 
pages have to do, we must pass over many 
interesting details of the subsequent suc- 
cess and almost unprecedented growth of 
this scheme of evangelizing the poor. We 
must close this sketch with one brief in- 
stance, which came under our own personal 
observation during a recent visit to Edin- 
burgh, of the influence and feeling with re- 
gard to Dr. Chalmers' connection with this 
enterprise which still remains. We had 
spent a very busy day with an old and ex- 
perienced guide in exploring the many scenes 
and places of deep interest with which the 
city abounds. As the day was drawing to 
its close, we drove slowly up the long ascent 
leading to the castle, and, pausing before 
its high walls, were gazing down, with 
feelings which it were idle for words to 
attempt to portray, upon the whole storied 
scene which lay spread out, a living picture, 
before us. " Here," said our guide, whose 
previous silence for a few minutes we had 
gratefully recognized, " here is Calton 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



389 



Hill ; here is Walter Scott's monument ; 
yonder lies the Tolbooth ; there the 
Canongate ; there is old Holyrood; there 
Arthur's Seat ; down this steep castle 
wall the infant prince James was lowered 

in a basket ; there the ." We stopped 

him ; his own interest was too many hun- 
dred times awakened in this oft-told tale, 
to have any freshness to our ears. A 
moment's silence ensued, when suddenly, 
with a brightening countenance, as if the 
very thought had sunshine in it ; and it 
must impart to us some of the same pleas- 
ure, he pointed to a close range of steep 
houses quite near us and exclaimed, " And 
there ! there where you see those high 
buildings was Chalmers? district. Ah, he 
was the poor man's friend ! God forever 
bless him and his." 



390 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

In this closing chapter of our book, 
we shall withdraw ourselves almost en- 
tirely from the consideration of Dr. Chal- 
mers as a public man to his more private 
domestic and religious character ; but it 
may be desirable to remark, that he kept 
himself continually at work for the church, 
until the hand of death arrested him, — 
going from the collection of the Sasten- 
tation Fund to the equally arduous work 
of collecting money to build and endow 
religious literary institutions ; turning from 
these to the wants of a nation suffering 
from the famine which was overshadowing 
the land, and receiving, in the success of 
every new object, the guarantee of the 
approbation of God. We have not no- 
ticed as they have occurred the different 
honors which had been liberally bestowed 
upon him, both in his own home and in 
foreign lands. Among these he was 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS, 



391 



elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh, and a Corresponding Member 
of the Royal Institute of France. The 
degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred 
on him by the University of Oxford. 
Neither of these two latter honors had ever 
before been conferred upon a Scotch cler- 
gyman. He was also called to fill many 
important and honorable stations in the 
church in other places; but he had delib- 
erately chosen the Professorship at Edin- 
burgh with a full sense of its importance 
as a means of influence over the church in 
general, and to this he adhered until the 
Disruption, when, as we have seen, he 
went immediately to work to establish a 
similar office in the Free Church. Not- 
withstanding it would seem as if his avo- 
cations were sufficient for a much more 
stalwart frame than his at present was, 
he kept his pen constantly in use. Works 
on theology ; commentaries on the Bible ; 
pleas for the poor ; political economy, as 
connected with the church ; the policy of 
church government ; earnest appeals in 



392 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



behalf of religious freedom, — all these, and 
many other topics, were continually pre- 
sented by him to the public in that clear 
and lucid manner which told so powerfully 
upon whatever he attacked or defended. 
Retiring from the noise, bustle, and ex- 
cessive company incident upon the life in a 
city, he had built for himself a pleasant 
house in a retired place not far from 
Edinburgh. This he called Morning Side ; 
and to this home he soon became ardently 
attached. Speaking of it to a friend he 
says : " Some people call this a dull place ; 
but what they call dull I call delicious." 

We shall now follow him through those 
home days. During the last six or seven 
years of his life, when he first wakened in 
the morning, before he rose from his bed, 
he wrote whatever he intended to write for 
the day. This rarely exceeded two or at 
most three hours of composition, and this 
committing to paper never took place 
until after the subject written upon had 
received long and thorough thought. Dr. 
Chalmers was preeminently a man who 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 393 



required preparation for whatever he did, 
and that he always made this preparation 
was perhaps the secret of his success. He 
almost never spoke extemporaneously. 
" Slow, but ardent," was said to be the 
characteristic of his mind, a most singular 
union hardly ever met, for to be slow is 
rarely to be brilliant or imaginative, and 
Dr. Chalmers surely was both; indeed, the 
traits of his mind were as rare as they 
were great. This morning composition 
ended, he says : " I find that successful 
exertion is a powerful means of exhilaration, 
which discharges itself in good-humor upon 
others," and so he came forth from his 
room " beaming and buoyant, with a step 
springing as that of youth, and a spirit 
overflowing with benignity. If his grand- 
son or any of the younger members of the 
family were alone in the breakfast room, a 
broad and hearty hurra ! hurra ! ringing 
through the hall, announced his coming, 
and carried to them his morning greeting." 

This breakfast table was the favorite 
one of the day. The sunshine which he 



394 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



had brought with him pervaded the whole 
scene, and the good-humor, racy anecdote, 
and peculiar personal manifestations, were 
more frequent here than anywhere else. 
To this meal he generally invited all those 
who, from letters or other means of intro- 
duction, he felt to have some claim upon 
his hospitality. Then, with half a dozen 
strangers around him, all the freshness and 
raciness of his mind would frequently break 
forth, and those who were favored guests 
at this season will not soon forget them. 

One morning in the week he reserved 
especially for his students, and as they 
were all not personally known to him, and 
he was too delicate and sensitive himself 
to wish to inflict upon them the mortifi- 
cation of supposing themselves unknown, 
he would resort to the following means of 
a personal introduction. " He had a card 
with the names on it of all the students 
whom he had that morning invited to 
breakfast. When all had assembled and 
were seated, holding the card below the 
level of the table, he glanced furtively down 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



395 



at it to catch the first name on the list. 
Then lifting his eyes and looking eagerly 
and rapidly round, he would say, 4 Tea 
or coffee, Mr. Johnson ? 5 hoping, by this 
innocent artifice, to identify the person so 
addressed, and to save him the pain of 
being apparently unknown or forgotten. 
This device was too transparent to be 
unnoticed ; but which of his students did 
not love him the more for the kindliness 
which dictated it? " 

American clergymen were frequent guests 
at this breakfast table. Dr. Chalmers was 
very much interested in America, and on 
the subject of slavery expressed his opinion 
freely and fully, as he did upon every other. 
He was much interested in the operations 
of the American Board of Missions, and 
said of them, " They have greatly elevated 
my opinion both of the wisdom and the 
force of principle which pervades the eccle- 
siastical mind and philanthropical public 
of America." 

At a breakfast table filled with his West 
Port agents, he breaks out into a storm of 



396 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



indignation, because opposition is offered 
to his plans on account of the new church 
drawing away members from other churches. 
He ends with, w People talk of the enlight- 
ened public. I just look upon the public 
as a big boy, — eh, man/' turning now 
archly to Tommy, the little grandson, "if 
a' the gowks in the world were brought 
together, they would fill a great muckle 
house/' So, with wit varied and inter- 
mingling with deep thought, the breakfast 
glided by, and then Dr. Chalmers took his 
walk alone around his garden. This was 
a favorite spot. " Well, dearie daughters," 
he would say when he came back to the 
house, "it's a noble instrument, a garden. 
I have just counted all the things in flower 
(in May) round all the walks, and they are 
320. There is one which occurs with a 
nauseous uniformity, but with that excep- 
tion they are most beautiful." 

He was very fond of flowers; and it is 
worth observation, that the man who could 
by his intense love for and study of the 
heavens obtain the power of writing astro- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 397 



noraical discourses which shall last while 
these stars shall endure, had also that 
simple, unpretending taste which made the 
humble snowdrop his favorite flower, and 
to bring the first one of the season home 
his yearly spring pleasure. The time 
between breakfast and dinner was devoted 
to biblical readings, of which it is impor- 
tant to the interests of our Sabbath schools 
that we should speak at full. The Bible 
was to Dr. Chalmers the one great book. 
To it he devoted more study, thought, and 
time than to any thing else. In all his 
efforts for the education of the young, the 
use of this as a means of instruction was 
constantly held forward as the first and 
best. Writing at the time when the at- 
tendance of Catholics upon the daily school 
made the study of the Bible in them a 
matter of question, he says, with regard to 
his own school : " We permit the Bible to 
be read every day. We encourage the 
reading and studying of it on two days. 
We require the reading of selections, in 
which all agree, on every day of the week." 



39S LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



His own private biblical studies were 
commenced regularly in the year 1S41, and 
were continued with the utmost perse- 
verance until the close of his life. Every 
day he read over a few verses, and, in the 
words of another, u having thought carefully 
over them, what he wrote consisted of his 
first and readiest thoughts clothed in the first 
and readiest words that occurred to him/' 
The hour thus daily spent he called, in 
Latin, his " Daily Biblical Hour," " Horae 
Biblicse Quotidianae." Every Sabbath had 
its two chapters, one in the Old, the 
other in the New Testament, with a full 
or clear explanation of their meanings all 
written down, and also the meditative 
devotion which they suggested. These 
hours he called his " Sabbath Bible hours/' 
Of these Sabbath articles, his biographer 
remarks : " Written amid the quiet of a 
day of rest, they rise to a higher region, and 
they breathe a purer air than those of his 
daily writing. Contemplative and devo- 
tional throughout, they pass generally into 
direct addresses to the Deity. Such refer- 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 399 



ences are continually made to the pass- 
ing incidents, that they may be fitly de- 
scribed, if the expression were allowable, 
as the Sabbath diary of the last six years 
of Dr. Chalmers' life. . . . The innermost 
movements of his spirit are here spread out 
to us, as he himself spread them out before 
that God who seeth in secret; we see him 
as he bowed in simple, sincere, profound 
humility when alone in the presence of 
God ; we hear him, as in tones often so low, 
and deep, yet often also so heavenly and 
sublime, he poured his confessions and 
desires and aspirations into the ear of the 
Holy One." 

The following brief entries into his jour- 
nal show the spirit and temper with which 
he wrote. " My chapter Yvas John thir- 
teenth to-day, and I certainly had great 
satisfaction in my Sabbath exercise there- 
upon. This is a strenuous Sabbath of 
Bible reading mixed with prayer. . . . Let 
me keep by God's word. . . . The chapter 
of Acts, in my previous reading, suggested 
some pregnant thoughts. . . . Was much 



400 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 

delighted with my ordinary Bible passage 
this morning. . . . Have adopted a new 
system of Sunday readings, confining my- 
self to a prayerful reading of the Scriptures. 
. . . Had two pleasant, and, let me hope, 
two spiritual Sabbaths, in consequence. 
... A dreary interval, throughout which 
the influences of God's word have been 
choked and overborne by the thorns of care 
and controversy." Sitting with his family 
in the quiet enjoyment of domestic pleas- 
ure, he breaks out as if his thoughts were 
constantly entwining around that source of 
all truth. " I am fond of the Old Testa- 
ment ; what a stately procession of Scrip- 
ture characters. I have just twelve that 
1 call my magnates; what a pinnacle 
that speech of our Saviour lifts Abraham 
to; he rejoiced to see my day, piercing 
the futurity of two thousand years. I like 
Isaac, there was such a mildness about 
him ; it is very picturesque his going forth 
to meditate in the evening tide. ... I am 
sure that judgment of Solomon's would 
make a great stir among the women ; 
tongues wad no be idle in Jerusalem." 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 401 



In a letter of advice to his daughter, in 
which he regulates her reading and occu- 
pation for the day. he says: "1. That the 
first time of your day should be devoted 
to religious meditation and prayer, which 
would be mightily helped by a little serious 
practical reading. Of course, I suppose a 
regular progress through the Bible, but 
over and above this, a pious, practical com- 
mentary, though only of a single verse each 
morning, might tell impressively on the 
heart." Such are a few of the expressions 
of love and reverence for the Bible which 
were constantly falling from the pen and 
lips of Dr. Chalmers. 

His dinner hour was one, and directly 
after this came his professional labors, 
which occupied most of his time until after 
tea ; then he reserved the hour as precious, 
almost inviolate, for his family and friends. 
He read much to them aloud, keeping 
steadily at one book until he had finished 
it, and interspersing the reading with such 
conversation as was naturally suggested. 

The picture given of his home by his son- 
26 



402 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



in-law, after one of his great public ap- 
pearances, is very interesting : " When he 
came home exhausted, his daughters would 
gather round him as he lay at ease in his 
arm-chair. One would play Scotch music, 
another shampoo his feet (a very frequent 
and to him always agreeable operation) ; 
a third would talk nonsense, and set him 
into fits of laughter. At such times, in a 
mock heroic way, he would repeat Scott's 
lines, — 

'O woman ! in our hours of ease.' 

A spirit of chivalry ran through all his 
intercourse with his daughters ; they not 
only ministered to his comfort in his hours 
of relaxation, he made them companions, 
as it were, of his public life, and sought 
their intellectual sympathy, even with his 
highest exercises of thought." 

His conversational powers were not re- 
served for the public or even choice visitors. 
They were much more liable to find him 
lost in one of his fits of abstraction, while 
his very heart and soul seemed to expand 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 403 



to their full freeness and freshness in the 
quiet retirement of his own home circle. 
We have already noticed his manners and 
habits in general society ; but we cannot 
refrain from giving in this place one addi- 
tional illustration of his power, when roused 
by some agitating theme. Calling one 
day upon a friend with the celebrated 
author, Isaac Taylor, the conversation 
turned upon the opposition which was 
offered by men in power to church exten- 
sion. " On this subject," says the gentle- 
man whom they were visiting, " he broke 
forth, not as he would himself have ex- 
pressed it, with the vehemence of passion, 
but with the vehemence of sentiment. 
His face kindled up, his eye flashed, the 
tone of his voice became impetuous, and 
his whole bearing afforded unmistakable 
indications of the strength of the emotions 
that were at work within. When he 
began, he was seated about two yards off 
from Mr. Taylor; but with almost every 
sentence he uttered he gave his chair a hitch 
nearer, until the knees of the two were in 



404 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



very close proximity, and Mr. Taylor had 
to draw himself up, and lean back against 
the wall, in order to save himself from the 
uplifted arm of ' the old man eloquent.' 
In a few minutes the thundercloud passed 
away, and his bland and genial nature 
beamed forth again with the sunny serenity 
that usually characterized it." But in his 
conversations generally, he indulged in racy 
anecdote and humorous illustration to an 
extent which rendered him a very inter- 
esting companion. Toward the latter 
part of his life, these anecdotes were 
frequently of some event w^hich had hap- 
pened to him in early days. The fol- 
lowing is one which was very character- 
istic of the man. " While preaching one 
of his astronomical discourses, he no- 
ticed among the audience a plain, hon- 
est, godly woman, who lived in a close of 
the Gallowgate, and with whom he was 
well acquainted. The Doctor felt an irre- 
sistible desire to know what Janet thought 
of the sermon, as he was quite sure that it 
was above her reach, and he knew that he 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 405 



would not require to ask her opinion, for, 
being a frank, outspoken person, she would 
not fail to give it of her own accord. A 
day or two after, he threw himself in her 
way, when he soon got what he was in 
quest of. 4 Weel, sir ! I was hearing ye 
in the Laigh Kirk, the ither day ; I canna 
say that I liket ye sae well as in our bit 
placey here. I canna say that I understood 
ye a' thegither ; but, ae, sir, there was 
something unco suitable and satisfyin' in 
the psalms.' " 

Another marked trait of Dr. Chalmers 
in his social intercourse and every-day life 
was his extreme youthfulness of feeling. 
It is said, with "much truth, that genius 
never grows old. The buoyancy and trust- 
fulness of childhood goes on to maturer 
years ; the heart never grows old, never 
becomes withered and dead, but in per- 
petual spring is always unfolding fresh 
green leaves and budding flowers. So 
was it preeminently with Dr. Chalmers. 
When sixty-five years old, being equipped 
for a ride to Edinburgh, with the ample 



406 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



pockets of his overcoat filled, as was his 
wont, to overflowing with books and pam- 
phlets, he excited the amusement of his 
family at his great dimensions. He heartily 
joined in the merriment, and, placing his 
hands on his sides, he went on to say: 
" I have now somewhat of the solidity and 
gravity, and somewhat also of the breadth, 
of middle age ; but I can scarcely shake 
off the feeling of boyhood. I remember 
when I was a student at St. Andrews, 
with what profound veneration I regarded 
the Professors. When I came to be a 
Professor there myself, I used to wonder 
if the gilpies could have the same feeling 
for me." At another time, when out on a 
walking excursion with some friends, they 
came to a high gate, which was locked, and 
they must either climb over or go some 
distance around. The younger part of the 
company, without any hesitation, climbed 
over, and then offered to assist Dr. Chal- 
mers in performing the same feat. He 
stoutly refused all aid, and easily scrambled 
to the top of the wall ; but now, how was 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 407 



he to get down. After many fruitless 
attempts he sat down to rest himself and 
reconnoitre. " Perched on this rustic emi- 
nence," says one of his companions, " he 
felt as if carried back into the scenes of his 
boyhood, and, looking blandly down upon 
the companions of his walk, gave vent to 
his feelings in a very curious and racy 
strain of observation. The purport of it was, 
that he felt it very difficult to realize his 
progress in life, and that there was often a 
grand contrast between his feelings and his 
years. When I meet, he said, a respectable 
matron who is perhaps a dozen years 
younger than myself, I feel quite disposed 
to look up to her with the same sort of 
reverence I did when I was a boy." 

This same feeling of youthfulness showed 
itself in his extreme attachment to his 
eldest grandson and namesake, Thomas 
Chalmers Hanna. He used to play a 
great deal with the child, and, when away 
from him, frequently wrote to him. This 
letter is one from among many : " My 
dear little Tommy : Why do you like 



408 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



your hobby-horse better than grandpapa? 
You tell me, because it is bigger than him ; 
but so are the haystack and the hill that 
you see from the window, and any house 
in the village ; these are all bigger than 
grandpapa, and will you tell me that you 
don't like grandpapa so well as you do a 
house or a hill or a haystack ? And, be- 
side, the hobby-horse cannot write letters 
to you like grandpapa, neither can he buy 
toys for you and send them from Edinburgh 
to Stirling; neither can he show you pic- 
tures, or do for you any of those things 
which you best like. Therefore, give up 
this foolish argument about bigness, and 
learn to like things for a better reason than 
the mere size of them. 

" And what grandpapa would rejoice to 
hear that you liked best, was that you 
loved God with all your heart and soul. 
It is he who made all things, and gives 
us all things that we enjoy. He is the 
author of our happiness here, and, if we 
please him, he will make us eternally happy 
Avith himself in heaven. Give Samuel a 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 409 



kiss from me, and offer my kind love to 
your mamma. I am, my dear little boy, 
your affectionate grandpapa. Thomas 
Chalmers." 

Again : " My very dear little Tommy : 
This is my birthday, and I beg to send 
you my best wishes, — hoping, that, if God 
please, you will have a longer life than 
your grandpapa." 

This birthday was Dr. Chalmers' sixty- 
fifth, and, writing of it in a different strain 
in his journal, he says : " My birthday. I 
have got over the half of my seventh de- 
cade, being now sixty-five, and have en- 
tered on what I call the Sabbath afternoon. 
My God, may it have a more sabbatical 
character than my Sabbath forenoon has 
had ; I will henceforth live wholly unto 
thee." This peculiar rest and sanctity of 
the Sabbath was always a marked thing 
in Dr. Chalmers' observance of the day. 
Repose and quiet, sanctified enjoyment, — 
what fitter way of spending the Sabbath of 
his days ? 

In a letter about this time to one of his 



410 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



daughters, he says : " Heaven forbid that 
the purposed Sabbath of my life, which 
should have commenced sooner, and which 
1 trust will only be terminated by my death, 
— Heaven forbid that it should be limited in 
its effects to the selfish objects of my own 
enjoyment, or my own preparation for an 
immortal state. My longing desire is, that 
others also, and especially those who are 
nearest and dearest to me, should receive 
an impulse in the same direction, and be 
fellow travellers along with me to a blissful 
eternity." 

It will be remembered, perhaps, that, 
writing years before with reference to that 
Sabbath rest, he had said, " What enamours 
me the more with this idea is the retrospect 
of my mother's widowhood." Throughout 
the whole of these last years of his life, the 
image of those solitary, holy years of his 
mother seems to have abided with him " as a 
pleasant foretaste of the blessedness which 
awaits the righteous." Drawn by these 
thoughts constantly, even amid the urgent 
business of an active life, to his home at 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 411 



Anstruther, he resolved to make a short 
visit to the old familiar scenes. Consti- 
tuted by nature so as to be powerfully 
affected by scenery and association, perhaps 
he hoped to derive a little of that "inward 
peace and hope " from being once more 
among the scenes hallowed by her memo- 
ries and prayers. 

"We cannot do our readers the injustice 
to give the following account of this visit 
in our own words, but transcribe for them 
the lifelike and graphic picture of Dr. 
Hanna, who, in all these closing scenes, 
writes with the fervidness and earnestness 
so peculiarly the property of those w 7 ho 
have the advantage of a strong personal 
attachment to the subject of their pen. 

" In the spring of 1845, Dr. Chalmers 
visited his native village. It almost looked 
as if he came to take farewell, and as if that 
peculiarity of old age which sends it back 
to the days of childhood ; for its last earthly 
reminiscences had for a time and prema- 
turely taken hold of him. His special 
object seemed to be to revive the recollec- 



412 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



tions of his boyhood gathering Johnny- 
Groats by the sea beach of the Billowness 
and lilacs from an ancient hedge, taking 
both away to be laid up in his repositories 
in Edinburgh. Not a person or place 
familiar to him in earlier years was left 
un visited. On his way to the churchyard, 
he went up the very road along which he 
had gone of old to the parish school. 
Stepping into a poor-looking dwelling by 
the way, he said to his companion, Dr. 
Williamson, i I would just like to see the 
place where Lizzie Green's water bucket 
used to stand,' — the said water bucket 
having been a favorite haunt of the over- 
heated ball-players, and Lizzie a great 
favorite for the free access she allowed to 
it. He called on two contemporaries of 
his boyhood, one of whom he had not seen 
for forty-five, the other for fifty-two years, 
and took the most boyish delight in recog- 
nizing how the ' mould of antiquity had 
gathered upon their features,' and in re- 
counting stories of his schoolboy days. 
" ' James ! ' said he to the eldest of the 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 413 



two, a tailor now upward of eighty, who in 
those days had astonished the children, 
and himself among the number, by a dis- 
play of superior knowledge, ' you were 
the first man who ever gave me a correct 
notion of the form of the earth. I knew 
that it was round, but always thought it 
was round like a shilling ; you told me it 
was round like a marble.' £ Well, John.' 
said he to the other, whose face, like his 
own, had suffered considerably from small- 
pox in his childhood. * you and I have 
had one advantage over folks with finer 
faces; theirs have been aye getting the 
waur — but ours have been ave getting the 
better o* the wear.' The dining-room of 
his grandfather's house had a fireplace 
fitted up behind with Dutch tiles, adorned 
with various quaint devices, upon which he 
used to feast his eyes in boyish wonder 
and delight. These he now sought out 
most diligently, but was grieved to find 
them all so blackened and begrimed by 
the smoke of half a century, that not one 
of his old windmills or burgomasters was 



414 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



visible. To one apartment he felt a pe- 
culiar tie as having been appropriated 
exclusively to his use in his college days, 
when his love of solitary study was a 
passion. But the most interesting visit of 
all was to Barnsmuir, a place a few miles 
from Anstruther, on the way to Crail. 

" In his schoolboy days it had been 
occupied by Captain R., whose eldest 
daughter rode daily on a little pony to the 
school at Anstruther. Dr. Chalmers was 
then a boy of from twelve to fourteen years 
of age, but he was not too young for an 
attachment of a singularly tenacious hold. 

" Miss R. was married (I believe while he 
was yet at college) to Mr. F., and his 
opportunities of seeing her in after life were 
few, but that early impression never faded 
from his heart. At the time of this visit to 
Anstruther in 1845, she had been dead for 
many years, but, at Dr. Chalmers' particu- 
lar request, her younger sister met him at 
Barnsmuir. Having made the most affec- 
tionate inquiries about Mrs. F. and her 
family, he inquired particularly about her 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 415 



death, receiving with deep emotion the 
intelligence that she died in the full Chris- 
tian hope, and that some of his own letters 
to her sister had served to soothe and 
comfort her latest hours. ; Mrs. W., ? 
said he. eagerly, 4s there a portrait of your 
sister anywhere in this house ? * She took 
him to a room, and pointed to a profile 
which hung upon the wall. He planted 
himself before it, gazed on it with intense 
earnestness, took down the picture, took 
out his card, and by two wafers fixed it 
firmly on the back of the portrait, exactly 
opposite to the face. Having replaced the 
likeness, he stood before it and burst into 
a flood of tears, accompanied by the warm- 
est expressions of attachment. After leav- 
ing the house, he sauntered in silence 
around the garden, buried in old recollec- 
tions, heaving a sigh occasionally and 
muttering to himself, i more than forty 
years ago. ? It is not often that a boyish 
feeling survives so long, and still less fre- 
quent, that, after such a life of variety and 
occupation as his had been, it should break 



416 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



out so freshly and strongly ; nor would we 
have ventured to record the incident did it 
not appear to us to prove that Dr. Chal- 
mers was as much distinguished for the 
tenderness and tenacity of his attachments, 
as for the brilliancy of his intellectual 
gifts/' 

A few months afterwards he went to 
Cavers. Here was spent the first days of 
his ministerial life ; days when he prayed 
and preached and visited, but when his 
heart was not in his work. Seeking out 
all his old acquaintances, he loved to talk 
with them over those past times, making 
most particular inquiries respecting the 
families whom he had known ; going into 
the little room at Harwich where he had 
written his sermons, and spent so many 
hours in what was then so much pleas- 
anter work to him, — his mathematical prep- 
arations. How changed from that day, 
— then, before him the life of an ambitious 
student only ; now, behind the life of a suc- 
cessful minister of God. 

And now there remained but one more 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 417 

journey, and but one more great exertion 
for the cause he had so nobly served. His 
increasing bodily weakness, and his spirit- 
ual longing for his " Sabbath-rest," had 
induced him to withdraw himself from any 
very active participation in church affairs ; 
indeed, so great had been the change, that 
it was considered by many to have arisen 
from disappointment as to the success of 
the Free Church, but it was far from this ; 
he considered the church as entirely tri- 
umphant, — only his work was done, he 
was already wishing to rest from his labors. 
There came, however, one more call. The 
wealthy Scottish proprietors refused to sell 
their lands for sites for the Free Church, 
and it was determined to send a committee 
to London to test the legality of their 
proceedings. Dr. Chalmers was earnestly 
solicited to make one of the number, and 
consented. During this journey, he kept 
quite a full journal, from which we shall 
not pause to make extracts, as they relate 
mainly to subjects and persons of local 
interest. He made now his last visit to 
27 



418 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



his sister, Mrs. Morton. One of his nieces, 
in describing this visit, says : " It was most 
delightful to watch his countenance. I 
never saw any thing like the smiles which 
gleamed one after another over it. He 
looked so happy, so innocent, so childlike, 
that one could scarcely fancy him the 
person before whom men of greatest in- 
tellect felt conscious inferiority." 

Almost as if with a presentiment that 
these were his last words, he gave simple, 
earnest, religious instruction to the differ- 
ent members of the family, and his parting 
prayer they will not soon forget. He asked 
that they " might one and all be shielded 
under the ample canopy of the Redeemer's 
righteousness ; that every hour that struck, 
every day that dawned, every night that 
darkened around them, might find them 
meeter for death, and for the eternity that 
follows it ; and that when their earthly 
course was finished, they might meet and 
spend together a never-ending Sabbath in 
the bright abodes of purity and peace." 

Another dear friend, whom he visited on 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 419 



this journey, writes of him : " I cannot 
convey to you the impression he left on 
me, of a loving spirit ripe for those joys, 
for the realization of which he was longing, 
while his most kind and affectionate man- 
ner to myself endeared him more than I 
can say. His leave-taking was most affec- 
tionate, saying, '* I love you all with the 
affection of a father.' " During this journey 
his letters had been addressed to Mrs. Chal- 
mers. The last lines he ever wrote her were 
the closing ones of this journal : " This is 
my last sheet. To-morrow (Friday) even- 
ing I expect to see you, by the favor of 
him whose right hand preserves contin- 
ually, and for whose grace on us all, I ever 
pray. I ever am, my dearest Grace, yours 
most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers." 

On Friday he reached home, well and 
apparently as strong and full of life as ever. 
The General Assembly was holding a 
meeting, and the interest he felt in all its 
business was as great as usual. On Sat- 
urday, he was busy preparing a report 
which was to be presented to the Assembly 



420 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



on the following Monday. On Saturday, 
part remained to be finished before rising 
on Monday morning. On Sunday morning 
he did not rise to breakfast, but sent to 
ask his guest, Mr. Gemmel, to come and 
see him in his bedroom. " I found him," 
says this gentleman, " in bed, reclining on 
his back, propped up with pillows, his head 
being very considerably elevated, which I 
believe was his usual way of resting in 
bed. His bland and benevolent counte- 
nance beamed upon me as I came up to his 
side, and he grasped me warmly by the 
hand. ' I am sorry that you are so unwell 
to-day, Doctor.' ' I do not by any means 
feel unwell, I only require a little rest.' 
He spoke with the greatest clearness and 
vigor, and I could not think that any thing 
had gone wrong but what might arise from 
the lassitude produced by his late journey 
and exertions in the South." There fol- 
lowed now a conversation with regard to 
church business, varied with some theolog- 
ical discussion, from which we select those 
remarks of a more simple and practical 
nature. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 421 



"In the offer of the gospel," he said, "we 
make no limitations whatever. I compare 
the world to a multitude of iron filings in 
a vessel, and the gospel to a magnet. The 
minister of God must bring the magnet 
into contact with them all ; the secret agency 
of God is to produce the attraction. Hu- 
man beings have the most strange way of 
keeping their accounts. They have one 
way of keeping their accounts with the 
world, and another way of keeping their 
accounts with heaven. In relation to the 
world, you will find men often open and 
generous and unsuspicious, but they keep 
their account with heaven in the most 
suspicious and niggardly manner, — in a 
manner with which I have no sympathy, 
continually striving against and fighting 
with the goodness and sincerity of God, 
and will not take God at his word." 

In the afternoon he attended the Free 
Church at Morning Side, and, on his way 
home, made a last call upon a very dear 
friend. After tea, he wrote a short letter 
to his sister, Mrs. Morton, in which he says: 



422 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



" I never expected, at one time, to see you 
again in the flesh, but now I will form no 
definite prospect of any futurity on this 
side of the grave." When this note was 
finished, he went into the garden behind 
his house, and, as he walked for the last 
time among those flowers he loved so well, 
he was heard by one of his family to ex- 
claim, in low but very earnest tones, " O 
Father! My heavenly Father!" " On re- 
turning," says Dr. Hanna, "to the drawing- 
room, he threw himself into his usual re- 
clining posture. His conversation at first 
was joyous and playful, — but a light 
spread over his face as he said that dis- 
quietudes lay light upon a man who could 
fix his heart on heaven. 4 I am fond,' he 
said, c of the Sabbath. Hail, sacred Sab- 
bath morn!' After tea, addressing Mr. 
Gemmel, he said : 4 You gave us worship 
in the morning, I am sorry to ask you 
again to give worship in the evening.' 
Mr. Gemmel answered, 6 Not at all, I will 
be happy to do so.' 4 Well,' said he, ' you 
will give worship to-night, and I expect to 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 423 



give worship to-morrow morning? During 
the whole of the evening, as if he had kept 
his brightest smiles and fondest utterances 
for the last, he was peculiarly bland and 
benignant." " I had seen him frequently," 
says Mr. Gemmel, " at Fairlie, and in his 
most happy moods, but I never saw him 
happier. Christian benevolence beamed 
from his countenance, sparkled in his eye, 
and played upon his lips. Immediately 
after prayers he withdrew, and, bidding his 
family remember that they must be early 
to-morrow, he waved his hand, saying, £ A 
general good-night.' 

"Next morning, Professor MacDougall, 
who lived in a house adjoining, sent to 
inquire for a package of papers which he 
had expected to receive at an earlier hour. 
The housekeeper, who had been long in the 
family, knocked at the door of Dr. Chal- 
mers' room, but received no answer. Con- 
cluding that he was asleep, and unwilling 
to disturb him, she waited until another 
party called with a second message ; she 
then entered the room, it was in darkness 



424 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



she spoke, but there was no response. At 
last she threw open the window shutters, 
and drew aside the curtains of the bed. 
He sat there, half erect, his hand reclining 
gently on his pillow, the expression of his 
countenance being that of fixed and ma- 
jestic repose. She took his hand, she 
touched his brow, — he had been dead for 
hours ; very shortly after that parting sa- 
lute to his family, he had entered the 
eternal world. It must have been wholly 
without pain or conflict. The expression 
of his face, undisturbed by a single trace 
of suffering, the position of the body so 
easy that the least struggle would have 
disturbed it, the very posture of arms and 
hands and fingers known to his family as 
that into which they fell naturally in the 
moments of entire repose, conspired to 
show, that, saved all strife with the last 
enemy, his spirit had passed to its place 
of glory and blessedness in the heavens." 

As soon as this sudden and solemn event 
was announced in Edinburgh, the Assem- 
bly resolved to adjourn all business, but to 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



425 



remain convened until it had offered its 
last testimony of respect to the deceased. 
The following account of the funeral so- 
lemnities is taken from an Edinburgh 
paper. 

A little before one. a large body of 
citizens, desirous of testifying respect to the 
memory of the deceased by joining the 
procession, assembled on the south side of 
Charlotte Square; so did also the magis- 
trates and town council of the city, in St. 
George's Church, in the same square. At 
one o'clock, the General Assembly left Free 
St. Andrews' Church, the moderator and 
office-bearers in front, in gowns and bands, 
preceded by the two officers of the As- 
sembly dressed in deep mourning, with 
hanging crapes and white wands in their 
hands, and walking four abreast, proceeded 
to the Lothian Road, where they halted at 
about a hundred yards in advance of Free 
St. George's Church. The members of the 
Assembly were followed by the professors 
of the New College in their gowns and 
bands. The ministers and elders not 



426 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



members of the Assembly now left Free 
St. George's Church, walking four abreast, 
preceded by four beadles, two and two, 
dressed in deep mourning, and with black 
rods in their hands, and took their place 
in the procession immediately behind the 
professors. Next came the ministers of 
other denominations. These were followed 
by the probationers and students walking 
also four abreast, and preceded by two 
officers dressed in the manner last described. 
Next in the procession came the rector 
and masters of the high school in their 
gowns, and preceded by the janitor in his 
official costume ; and, following in their 
rear, were the rector, teacher, and students 
of the Edinburgh Normal School, with 
other Free Church teachers in Edinburgh 
and vicinity. Forming the rear of the 
procession came the large body of citizens 
who had assembled in Charlotte Square 
walking four abreast. 

" Thus formed, the procession moved 
toward the Lothian Road, headed by the 
magistrates and town council in their 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



427 



robes, — the pavement being occupied with 
solemnized spectators, and every window 
being crowded with faces. At the main 
point, the committee and congregation of 
the Territorial Church, West Port, were 
drawn up, and, as the procession passed, 
they fell into the rear. The procession 
moved on by the Links to Churchill, and 
having arrived to within fifty yards of the 
gate leading to the house of the deceased, 
it halted. Here the members of the Pres- 
bytery of Edinburgh and the Professors 
fell out of their places and repaired to the 
house, where the private friends of the 
deceased were already assembled, and 
where devotional exercises were conducted 
by the Rev. Mr. Addis, minister of Morn- 
ing Side Free Church. At Morning Side, 
the procession was joined by the office- 
bearers and congregation of Morning Side 
Free Church, and by the pupils of Mer- 
chiston Academy. After an interval of 
half an hour, the hearse, containing the 
body of the lamented dead, drawn by four 
horses attended by grooms, was led up to 



428 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



the procession, which now began to move 
slowly off toward the place of interment in 
the new cemetery at Grange. 

" Dust to dust ; the grave now holds all 
that was mortal of Thomas Chalmers. 
Never before did we witness such a funeral ; 
nay, never before, in at least the memory 
of man, did Scotland witness such a fu- 
neral. Greatness of the mere extrinsic type 
can always command a showy pageant ; 
but mere extrinsic greatness never yet 
succeeded in purchasing the tears of a 
people ; and the spectacle of yesterday — in 
which the trappings of grief were not as 
idle signs, but as the representatives of a 
real sorrow, w T ere borne by nearly half the 
population of the metropolis, and black- 
ened the public ways for furlong after fur- 
long, and mile after mile, — was such as 
Scotland has rarely witnessed, and which 
mere rank or wealth, when at the highest or 
the fullest, w r as never yet able to buy. It 
was a solemn tribute spontaneously paid to 
departed goodness and greatness by the 
public mind. 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 429 



" The day was one of those gloomy days, 
not unfrequent in early summer, which 
steeps the landscape in a sombre neutral tint 
of gray — a sort of diluted gloom — and 
volumes of mist unvariegated, black, and 
diffuse of outline, flew low athwart the hills, 
or lay folded on the distant horizon. A chill 
breeze from the east murmured drearily 
through the trees that line the cemetery on 
the south and west, and rustled amid the low 
ornamental shrubs that vary and adorn its 
surface. We felt as if the garish sunshine 
would have associated ill with the occasion. 

" A continuous range of burial vaults, ele- 
vated some twenty feet over the level, with 
a screen of Gothic architecture in front? 
fenced by a parapet and laid out into a 
broad roadway stop, runs along the ceme- 
tery from side to side, and was covered at 
an early hour by many thousand specta- 
tors, mostly well-dressed females ; all the 
neighboring roads, with the various streets 
through which the procession passed, from 
Morning Side to Lawriston, and from 
Lawriston to the burying-ground, a dis- 



430 LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



tance, by this circuitous route, of consid- 
erably more than two miles, were lined 
thick with people. We are confident we 
rather underestimate than exaggerate 
their numbers when we state, that the 
spectators of the funeral must rather have 
exceeded than fallen short of a hundred 
thousand persons. As the procession ap- 
proached, the shops on both sides, with 
scarce any exceptions, were shut up and 
business suspended. There was no part 
of the street or road through which it 
passed sufficiently open, or nearly so, to 
give a view of the whole. The spectator 
merely saw file after file pass by in what 
seemed endless succession. In the ceme- 
tery, which is of great extent, the whole 
was at once seen for the first time, and the 
appearance was that of an army. The 
figures dwindled in the distance in receding 
toward the open grave along the long 
winding walk, as in those magnificent 
pictures of Martin, in which even the 
littleness of man is made to enhance the 
greatness of their works and the array of 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 431 



their aggregated numbers. And still the 
open gateway continued to give ingress to 
the dingy living tide that seemed to flow 
unceasingly inward, like some perennial 
stream that disembogues its waters into a 
lake. The party-colored thousands on the 
eminence above, all in silence, and many 
of them in tears, the far-stretching lines of 
the mourners below, the effect, amid the 
general black, of the scarlet cloaks of the 
magistracy — for the magistrates of Edin- 
burgh with much good taste and feeling 
had come in their robes of office, and 
attended by its officials and insignia, to 
manifest their spontaneous respect for the 
memory of the greatest of their country- 
men ; — the slow, measured tramp, that with 
the rustle of the breeze formed the only 
sounds audible in so vast an assemblage, 
all conspired to compose a scene solemn 
and impressive in the highest degree, and 
of which the recollection will long survive 
in the memory of the spectators. There 
was a mora] sublimity in the spectacle. 
It speaks more emphatically than by words, 



432 



LIFE OF THOMAS CHALMERS. 



of the dignity of intrinsic excellence, and of 
the height to which a true man may attain. 
It was the dust of a Presbyterian min- 
ister which the coffin contained, and yet 
they were burying him amid the tears of a 
nation, and with more than kingly honors." 



end . 





A* 





r o ♦ x -» 



V ***** %, *** \>\-«o t 



- # * • 








< Deacidified using the Bookkeeper pro 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnolog 

» '-EADER IN PAPER PRESERVE 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16056 
(724)779-2111 



